Justin Sun says he's suing Trump's $2.5bn crypto project over frozen WLFI tokens

Justin Sun said on Wednesday morning that he was suing leadership at the Trump-linked crypto project World Liberty Financial.

The billionaire creator of the Tron network said World Liberty Financial had, among other accusations, unjustly frozen his WLFI tokens, the project's native voting token.

“They wrongfully froze all of my tokens, stripped me of my right to vote on governance proposals, and have threatened to permanently destroy my tokens by ‘burning’ them — all without any proper justification,” Sun said, referring to the project’s leadership.

World Liberty Financial was launched in 2024 and co-founded by various members of US President Donald Trump’s family, namely his three sons, as well as the sons of billionaire real estate developer Steve Witkoff, who serves as the White House’s special envoy to the Middle East.

President Trump is a co-founder emeritus of the project, according to marketing materials.

Sun bought some $75 million worth of the project’s WLFI token in late 2024 and early 2025. Shortly after, the US Securities and Exchange Commission paused an investigation into Sun over alleged securities violations.

In March 2026, the SEC settled the case after he agreed to pay a $10 million penalty. He denied any liability.

The relationship between Sun and World Liberty Financial’s leadership has soured considerably since.

Brewing feud

Sun’s latest claims come less than a week after the project’s leadership threatened legal action against the Chinese crypto entrepreneur over “baseless allegations” about the project's operations.

On April 12, the Tron founder alleged that the WLFI team implemented a secret backdoor to control user assets, freeze tokens, and treated “the crypto community as a personal ATM.”

Sun had his tokens frozen in September after he sent $9 million WLFI tokens to the HTX crypto exchange, which he owns.

Neither World Liberty Financial nor Sun responded to DL News’ request for comment.

The project’s token is down nearly 76% from its all-time high set in October 2025. The project's market cap now sits at roughly $2.5 billion.

Liam Kelly is DL News’ Berlin correspondent. Contact him at liam@dlnews.com.