New Delhi: Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a digital currency firm co-founded by US President Donald Trump and his sons, alleging that the company unlawfully froze his token holdings.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in California, claims that World Liberty secretly installed mechanisms to block the sale of Sun’s tokens after they became tradable in September 2025. It further alleges the company threatened to “burn” or permanently delete his holdings, even while they remained in his digital wallet.
Sun, the Hong Kong-based founder of the Tron cryptocurrency, said he initially purchased $45 million worth of WLFI tokens—around 3 billion—and was later awarded an additional 1 billion tokens after being named an advisor to World Liberty, the lawsuit said.
Sun’s portfolio of 4 billion WLFI tokens is worth roughly $320 million, according to reuters calculations based on the latest WLFI price.
Responding to the lawsuit, in a post on
“He engaged in misconduct that required World Liberty to take action to protect itself and its users,” added Witkoff, who is the son of Steve Witkoff, US Special Envoy for Peace Missions.
Eric Trump, a co-founder of the firm and a son of the president, also criticized the lawsuit in a post on X on Wednesday.
He wrote “The only thing more ridiculous than this lawsuit is spending $6 million on a banana duct-taped to a wall,” a reference to Sun’s November 2024 purchase of a piece of art called “Comedian” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.
A spokesperson for World Liberty Financial declined to comment on the lawsuit. A representative of the company had told reuters earlier this week that Sun “is not an advisor at World Liberty Financial, and he has never held an operational role in the company.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
World Liberty has emerged as one of several lucrative crypto ventures linked to the Trump family, reportedly generating over $1 billion in revenue from the company according to a reuters analysis. Its bylaws state that 75 percent of proceeds from WLFI token sales are directed to the Trump family.
The company has recently faced scrutiny from investors over concerns about transparency, centralized governance, and responsiveness to community complaints.
In his lawsuit, Sun described himself as “one of World Liberty’s anchor investors.”
World Liberty’s structure means that the WLFI tokens Sun bought in 2024 are not equivalent to standard company shares. The tokens do not carry ownership in the company and holders are not entitled to dividends, although they do gain a limited say in the company’s governance.
Souring Relationship
The lawsuit marks a sharp breakdown in relations between Justin Sun and World Liberty Financial.
In September, Sun alleged that the company froze its token holdings. Earlier this month, he claimed in a post on
That gave World Liberty “unilateral power” to “freeze, restrict, and effectively confiscate the property rights” of token holders without cause or recourse, Sun wrote on X.
World Liberty rejected the allegations at the time, responding on
The lawsuit also notes that Sun “has long been (and remains) an ardent supporter of President Trump and the Trump family.”
Frozen out
According to the lawsuit, World Liberty representatives “repeatedly contacted and pressured” Sun between April and July 2025 to invest additional funds, including requests to commit to acquiring $200 million in a separate World Liberty stablecoin token and to acquire an equity stake in the firm.
Sun said in a post on
A measure proposed by the company last week would restrict early investors holding a combined 17 billion tokens from being able to trafe all of their tokens until 2030, a year after President Trump is scheduled to leave office.
He said he “strongly opposed” the recent governance proposal. He was unable to vote on the measure because his tokens had already been frozen.
Sun has also invested heavily in Trump-linked meme coins.
Trump has launched a slate of crypto-friendly policies since returning to office in January 2025.
Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission in March settled a 2023 case against Sun for $10 million over allegations including fraud, unregistered crypto securities, and hiding payments to celebrities to promote his products. Sun made no admission of wrongdoing.
(DD News)
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