1 month ago
Billionaire crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun connected Tuesday sued World Liberty Financial, nan integer rate task co-founded by Donald Trump and his sons, alleging that World Liberty illegally froze his holdings of tokens issued by nan company.
Sun, nan largest investor successful World Liberty, alleged successful nan lawsuit, revenge successful a national tribunal successful California, that nan institution secretly installed devices to forestall nan waste of his tokens aft they became tradeable successful September 2025. The suit besides alleges that World Liberty threatened to “burn” – aliases permanently delete – his holdings, moreover while they were successful Sun’s integer wallet.
Sun, nan Hong Kong-based laminitis of nan Tron cryptocurrency, bought $45m of WLFI tokens – immoderate 3bn – and was later awarded a further 1bn tokens aft being named arsenic an advisor to World Liberty, nan suit said. In nan lawsuit, Sun described himself arsenic “one of World Liberty’s anchor investors”.
Sun’s portfolio of 4bn WLFI tokens is worthy astir $320m, according to Reuters calculations based connected nan latest WLFI price.
World Liberty Financial declined to remark connected nan lawsuit. A spokesperson for nan institution said earlier this week that Sun “is not an advisor astatine World Liberty Financial, and he has ne'er held an operational domiciled successful nan company”.
The White House did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.
World Liberty is nan astir salient of respective lucrative crypto businesses co-founded aliases controlled by nan Trump family, which has already made much than $1bn from World Liberty, according to a Reuters analysis. World Liberty’s bylaws authorities that 75% of nan gross from WLFI token income is routed to nan Trumps. World Liberty is nether expanding scrutiny from immoderate of its investors, who person complained for months astir what they picture arsenic nan company’s deficiency of transparency, centralized governance building and nonaccomplishment to respond to organization complaints, Reuters reported this month.
World Liberty’s building intends that nan WLFI tokens Sun bought successful 2024 are not balanced to modular institution shares. The tokens do not transportation ownership successful nan institution and holders are not entitled to dividends, though they do summation a constricted opportunity successful nan company’s governance.
The suit caps a melodramatic deterioration of relations betwixt Sun and World Liberty.
In September, Sun claimed that nan institution had stiff his token holdings, and earlier this period alleged successful a station connected societal media level X that World Liberty had secretly embedded what he described arsenic a “backdoor blacklisting function” successful nan blockchain-based contracts utilized for nan tokens.
That gave World Liberty “unilateral power” to “freeze, restrict, and efficaciously confiscate nan spot rights” of token holders without origin aliases recourse, Sun wrote connected X.
World Liberty astatine that clip responded to Sun’s allegations pinch a station connected X that said: “We person nan contracts. We person nan evidence. We person nan truth. See you successful tribunal pal.” The suit said Sun “has agelong been (and remains) an ardent protagonist of President Trump and nan Trump family”.
The suit alleges that World Liberty representatives “repeatedly contacted and pressured” Sun to put further superior successful nan task betwixt April and July 2025, including requests to perpetrate to acquiring $200m successful a abstracted World Liberty stablecoin token and to get an equity liking successful nan company.
Sun said successful a station connected X connected Wednesday that he had “tried successful bully faith” to resoluteness his complaints pinch World Liberty, adding that its squad “refused my requests to unfreeze my tokens and reconstruct my authorities arsenic a token holder”.
A measurement projected by nan institution past week would restrict early investors holding a mixed 17bn tokens from being capable to waste and acquisition each of their tokens until 2030, a twelvemonth aft nan president is scheduled to time off office.
Sun said he “strongly opposes” nan caller governance connection but claimed he could not ballot connected it arsenic World Liberty had stiff his early investor tokens.
Sun has besides invested heavy successful Trump’s alleged meme coin.
Trump has launched a slate of crypto-friendly policies since returning to nan White House successful January 2025.
In March, nan Securities and Exchange Commission settled a 2023 suit against Sun for $10m. The suit had alleged fraud, trading unregistered crypto securities and hiding payments to celebrities to beforehand his products. Sun made nary admittance of wrongdoing.
