Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun on Tuesday sued World Liberty Monetary, the digital forex enterprise co-founded by U.S. President Donald Trump and his sons, alleging that World Liberty illegally froze his holdings of tokens issued by the corporate.
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Sun alleged within the lawsuit, filed in a federal court in California, that World Liberty secretly put in instruments to forestall the sale of his tokens after they turned tradeable in September 2025. The lawsuit additionally alleges that World Liberty threatened to “burn” — or completely delete — his holdings, even whereas they have been in Sun’s digital pockets.
Sun, the Hong Kong-based founding father of the Tron cryptocurrency, purchased $45 million of WLFI tokens — some 3 billion — and was later awarded an additional 1 billion tokens after being named as an advisor to World Liberty, the lawsuit stated.
Sun’s portfolio of 4 billion WLFI tokens is value roughly $320 million, in accordance to Reuters calculations based mostly on the most recent WLFI value.
Zach Witkoff, World Liberty Monetary’s chief govt and a co-founder, stated in a publish on X on Wednesday that Sun’s authorized claims “are solely meritless, and World Liberty seems ahead to getting the case thrown out promptly.”
“He engaged in misconduct that required World Liberty to take motion to shield itself and its customers,” added Witkoff, who’s the son of Steve Witkoff, U.S. Particular Envoy for Peace Missions.
Eric Trump, a son of the president and likewise a World Liberty co-founder, additionally posted to X on Wednesday. He wrote “The one factor extra 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 bit of artwork known as “Comic” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.
A spokesperson for World Liberty Monetary declined to touch upon the lawsuit. A consultant of the corporate had informed Reuters earlier this week that Sun “just isn’t an advisor at World Liberty Monetary, and he has by no means held an operational position within the firm.”
The White Home didn’t reply to a request for remark.
World Liberty is essentially the most outstanding of a number of profitable crypto companies co-founded or managed by the Trump household, which has already made greater than $1 billion from World Liberty, in accordance to a Reuters evaluation. World Liberty’s bylaws state that 75% of the income from WLFI token gross sales is routed to the Trumps.
World Liberty is below rising scrutiny from a few of its traders, who’ve complained for months about what they describe as the corporate’s lack of transparency, centralized governance construction and failure to reply to neighborhood complaints, Reuters reported this month.
Within the lawsuit, Sun described himself as “one in all World Liberty’s anchor traders.”
World Liberty’s construction signifies that the WLFI tokens Sun purchased in 2024 will not be equal to normal firm shares. The tokens don’t carry possession within the firm and holders will not be entitled to dividends, though they do achieve a restricted say within the firm’s governance.
Souring relationship
The lawsuit caps a dramatic deterioration of relations between Sun and World Liberty.
In September, Sun claimed the corporate had frozen his token holdings, and earlier this month alleged in a publish on social media platform X that World Liberty had secretly embedded what he described as a “backdoor blacklisting operate” within the blockchain-based contracts used for the tokens.
That gave World Liberty “unilateral energy” to “freeze, limit, and successfully confiscate the property rights” of token holders with out trigger or recourse, Sun wrote on X.
World Liberty at the moment responded to Sun’s allegations with a publish on X that stated: “We’ve got the contracts. We’ve got the proof. We’ve got the reality. See you in court pal.”
The lawsuit stated Sun “has lengthy been (and stays) an ardent supporter of President Trump and the Trump household.”
Frozen out
The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty representatives “repeatedly contacted and pressured” Sun to make investments extra capital within the enterprise between April and July 2025, together with requests to commit to buying $200 million in a separate World Liberty stablecoin token and to purchase an fairness stake within the firm.
Sun stated in a publish on X on Wednesday he had “tried in good religion” to resolve his complaints with World Liberty, including its workforce “refused my requests to unfreeze my tokens and restore my rights as a token holder.”
A measure proposed by the corporate final week would restrict early investors holding a mixed 17 billion tokens from having the ability to commerce all of their tokens till 2030, a 12 months after the president is scheduled to depart workplace.
Sun stated he “strongly opposes” the brand new governance proposal, however couldn’t vote on it as World Liberty had frozen his early investor tokens.
Sun has additionally invested closely in President Trump’s so-called meme coin.Trump has launched a slate of crypto-friendly insurance policies since returning to the White Home in January 2025.
In March, the Securities and Trade Fee settled a 2023 lawsuit against Sun for $10 million. The lawsuit had alleged fraud, promoting unregistered crypto securities and hiding funds to celebrities to promote his merchandise. Sun made no admission of wrongdoing.
