Tron creator Justin Sun on Tuesday sued World Liberty Financial, the stablecoin and crypto firm backed by members of US President Donald Trump’s family, alleging the project unfairly locked up his $WLFI holdings, made fraudulent misrepresentations and threatened and defamed Sun.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday, which includes a line about Sun’s support for Trump himself, alleged that World Liberty’s management had engaged “in an illegal scheme to seize property” in the form of Sun’s tokens, which Sun claimed he had purchased after being solicited by the World Liberty team in 2024.
“At the crucial time for World Liberty, Mr. Sun invested $45 million to purchase $WLFI tokens from World Liberty, not only because of the project’s claims that it would promote the adoption of decentralized finance — an issue Mr. Sun cares deeply about and to which he has devoted much of his life’s work — but also because of the Trump family’s association with the project,” the Trump family’s association with the project said.
A spokesman for World Liberty Financial said it had no comment on the lawsuit.
World Liberty asked Sun to continue investing through 2025, including through a request to mint World Liberty’s $1 stablecoin, the filing said. “In July 2025, when it became clear that Mr. Sun would not invest or mint USD1 on their terms, the World Liberty principals became hostile to Mr. Sun.”
“World Liberty induced Plaintiffs to make their investments in World Liberty through fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions about the financial rights and freedoms that would come with purchasing $WLFI tokens,” the suit states.
These allegedly fraudulent misrepresentations include statements about token holder rights, various public statements by World Liberty or its executives about token holder management rights, and “freedom to act” statements.
Sun’s suit also alleged that World Liberty, despite presenting itself as a company operating in the decentralized finance sector, had centralized control over its tokens.
According to the complaint, World Liberty modified the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a “blacklist” feature that allowed the company to freeze tokens in specific wallets. The change was not put to a government vote or revealed to investors, Sun claims, even though token holders had just approved a proposal to make part of the offering tradable.
“While the upgrade is technically visible on the public blockchain, World Liberty buried it in the code without alerting token holders of its existence or implications,” the complaint states. “Thus, in the dark of night, the company created a ‘blacklisting’ function that it could exercise at will.”
The complaint alleges that World Liberty’s freezing of Sun’s tokens served a dual purpose: to pressure him to mint $200 million of the company’s USD1 stablecoin on its Tron blockchain and to manipulate $WLFI’s market price by preventing one of the largest holders from selling.
By locking in Sun’s position, the complaint alleges, World Liberty “artificially supported the market price of the $WLFI tokens held by World Liberty founders and the company’s corporate tax.”
World Liberty’s ability to issue, freeze and even redistribute tokens may not just undercut its decentralization claims, but also raise regulatory questions. The filing claims those powers could qualify the company as a money transmitter under the rules of the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, subjecting it to registration and anti-money laundering requirements.
Other allegations in the complaint include that “World Liberty made two overt threats” against Sun and his companies. Chase Herro, one of World Liberty’s co-founders, reportedly threatened to burn Sun’s $WLFI tokens if Sun did not ask for his tokens to be burned.
“Second, Mr. Herro also falsely claimed that the know-your-customer (‘KYC’) documentation submitted by Mr. Sun and the Sun Companies in connection with their $WLFI token purchase was insufficient,” the filing states.
Herro threatened to report Sun to US authorities, the suit alleges.
Portions of the trial were redacted. Another filing attached to the lawsuit cited a confidentiality provision that said Sun’s team gave the World Liberty team an opportunity to decide whether those redacted provisions should remain sealed.
In a post on X, Sun said he had “attempted in good faith to resolve this situation.”
“All I want is to be treated the same as all other early investors who received tokens – no better, no worse,” he said.
“I also want the community to know that I strongly oppose the new government proposal, World Liberty, announced on April 15,” Sun said in his post.
Since Trump took office, Sun has visited the United States after previously staying away from the country. He was a guest at Trump’s first memecoin dinner (tied to another Trump-linked crypto project) last year.
Sun settled charges with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last month and agreed to pay a $10 million fine to settle a lawsuit brought by the former presidential administration.
