Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, has initiated a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm with ties to the family of former US President Donald Trump. The lawsuit claims that World Liberty Financial improperly froze Sun's $WLFI tokens, made false representations, and issued threats against him.
According to the lawsuit, Sun had invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens after being approached by World Liberty's team in 2024, partly due to the project's connection to the Trump family and its purported goal of promoting decentralized finance. However, when Sun declined to continue investing in 2025, including a request to mint World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin, the company's attitude towards him allegedly became hostile.
The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty Financial deceived investors, including Sun, through false statements about the rights and freedoms associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens. It is also claimed that the company exerted centralized control over its tokens, contrary to its decentralized finance ethos. In August 2025, World Liberty Financial 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 asserts that this modification was used to freeze Sun's tokens, pressuring him to mint $200 million of the USD1 stablecoin on the Tron blockchain and artificially inflating the market price of $WLFI tokens held by World Liberty's founders and treasury.
Furthermore, the complaint argues that World Liberty Financial's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens may subject it to registration and anti-money laundering requirements as a money transmitter under US regulations. The lawsuit also includes allegations of threats made by World Liberty's co-founder, Chase Herro, against Sun and his businesses, including a claim that Herro threatened to burn Sun's $WLFI tokens and report him to US authorities over allegedly inadequate know-your-customer documentation. A significant portion of the lawsuit has been redacted, with Sun's team offering World Liberty the opportunity to decide whether these provisions should remain sealed.
In a public statement, Sun expressed his desire to be treated equally to other early investors and voiced his opposition to a new governance proposal published by World Liberty. This development comes after Sun's recent settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, in which he agreed to pay a $10 million fine to resolve a case from the previous presidential administration.