Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, has initiated a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm with ties to the family of former U.S. President Donald Trump. The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty Financial froze Sun's $WLFI tokens, made false representations, and threatened him. According to the lawsuit, Sun had invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens after being approached by the World Liberty team in 2024, partly due to the project's association with the Trump family and its claims of promoting decentralized finance.
However, when Sun declined to continue investing in 2025, including a request to mint the USD1 stablecoin, World Liberty's attitude towards him became hostile. The lawsuit claims that World Liberty made fraudulent misrepresentations about the rights and freedoms associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens, including statements about token holder governance and the ability to transact freely. It is also alleged that World Liberty exercised centralized control over its tokens, contrary to its decentralized finance claims. In August 2025, World Liberty modified the smart contract governing $WLFI to introduce a 'blacklisting' function, allowing the company to freeze tokens in specific wallets without disclosing this change to investors or putting it to a governance vote.
The lawsuit argues that freezing Sun's tokens served to pressure him into minting $200 million of the USD1 stablecoin on the Tron blockchain and to artificially inflate the market price of $WLFI tokens held by World Liberty founders and its corporate treasury. This action may not only undermine World Liberty's claims of decentralization but also raise regulatory concerns, potentially qualifying the firm as a money transmitter subject to registration and anti-money laundering requirements. The complaint further alleges that World Liberty made overt threats to Sun and his businesses, including a threat to burn his $WLFI tokens and to report him to U.S. authorities over allegedly inadequate know-your-customer documentation.
Sun has stated that he attempted to resolve the situation in good faith and seeks equal treatment as other early investors who received tokens. He also expressed opposition to a new governance proposal published by World Liberty on April 15.