Justin Sun sues World Liberty over token freeze

Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against World Liberty Financial, a digital currency venture co-founded by Donald Trump and his sons, alleging the company unlawfully froze his holdings of its tokens. The complaint was lodged in a federal court in California and centers on restrictions Sun says were imposed after the tokens became tradeable in September 2025.

According to the lawsuit, Sun claims World Liberty secretly added mechanisms designed to block him from selling his WLFI tokens once trading began. The filing also alleges the company threatened to “burn” his tokens, meaning permanently delete them, even while they remained in his digital wallet. World Liberty Financial declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Sun, described in the filing as the largest investor in World Liberty, is the Hong Kong-based founder of the Tron cryptocurrency. The lawsuit says he purchased $45m of WLFI tokens, totaling about 3bn, and later received an additional 1bn tokens after being named an adviser to World Liberty.

Sun characterized himself in the complaint as “one of World Liberty’s anchor investors,” and the filing places his total holdings at 4bn WLFI tokens, valued at roughly $320m based on calculations using the latest WLFI price.

A spokesperson for World Liberty said 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 immediately respond to a request for comment.

The dispute unfolds as World Liberty draws attention as one of several crypto businesses co-founded or controlled by the Trump family. An analysis said the Trump family has already made more than $1bn from World Liberty, and the company’s bylaws state that 75% of revenue from WLFI token sales is routed to the Trumps.

Some investors have raised concerns about World Liberty’s governance and disclosures. A report this month said investors have complained for months about what they describe as limited transparency, a centralized governance structure, and a lack of responsiveness to community complaints.

The lawsuit emphasizes that WLFI tokens are not the same as conventional equity. The structure described means the tokens do not represent ownership in the company and do not provide dividends, while offering holders only a limited role in governance.

Sun has publicly escalated his claims in recent months. In September, he said the company froze his holdings, and earlier this month he alleged on X that World Liberty embedded what he called a “backdoor blacklisting function” in the token contracts, which he said gave the company unilateral power to freeze or restrict token holders. World Liberty responded on X at the time: “We have the contracts. We have the evidence. We have the truth. See you in court pal.”

The complaint says Sun “has long been (and remains) an ardent supporter of President Trump and the Trump family,” while also alleging World Liberty representatives pressured him between April and July 2025 to invest more capital, including requests to commit to acquiring $200m in a separate World Liberty stablecoin token and to acquire an equity stake.

Sun wrote on X on Wednesday that he had “tried in good faith” to resolve the dispute, but said the team refused to unfreeze his tokens and restore his rights as a token holder.

Separately, Sun pointed to a governance measure proposed last week that would restrict early investors holding a combined 17bn tokens from trading all of their tokens until 2030, which is one year after the president is scheduled to leave office. Sun said he “strongly opposes” the proposal and claimed he could not vote because his early investor tokens were frozen.

The source material also notes Sun has invested heavily in Trump’s so-called meme coin, and that Trump has pursued a slate of crypto-friendly policies since returning to the White House in January 2025.

Sun’s legal fight comes after a prior US regulatory case. In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled a 2023 lawsuit against Sun for $10m; that case alleged fraud, selling unregistered crypto securities, and concealing payments to celebrities to promote his products. Sun made no admission of wrongdoing.