Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, has initiated a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm backed by associates of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
The suit alleges that World Liberty unfairly locked up Sun's $WLFI token holdings, engaged in fraudulent activities, and made threats against him. According to the lawsuit, Sun invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens after being solicited by World Liberty's team in 2024, partly due to the project's claims of promoting decentralized finance and its association with the Trump family.
However, when Sun declined to continue investing in 2025, World Liberty's leadership allegedly became hostile towards him. The lawsuit claims that World Liberty made fraudulent misrepresentations about the rights and liberties associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens, including statements about governance rights and the freedom to transact. It is also alleged that World Liberty modified the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a 'blacklisting' function, allowing the company to freeze tokens without disclosing this change to investors.
The complaint argues that this modification enabled World Liberty to freeze Sun's tokens, which served the dual purpose of pressuring him to mint $200 million of the company's USD1 stablecoin and artificially propping up the market price of $WLFI tokens held by World Liberty's founders and treasury. The lawsuit raises concerns about World Liberty's decentralization claims and potential regulatory issues, as the company's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens may qualify it as a money transmitter under U.S. regulations. Other allegations include threats made by World Liberty's co-founder, Chase Herro, against Sun and his businesses.
Sun has stated that he attempted to resolve the situation amicably and seeks to be treated equally to other early investors who received tokens.