Lawsuit Filed Against World Liberty by Billionaire Investor
The Trump family's cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty, is facing a lawsuit from one of its billionaire investors, Justin Sun, who alleges extortion and improper conduct by the company.
Sun claims that World Liberty engaged in an "illegal scheme" to confiscate his WLFI tokens, a digital currency issued by the firm.
According to Sun, the company, co-founded by former US President Donald Trump and his son Eric Trump, has "frozen" all of his tokens and revoked his voting rights on governance matters.
The BBC has reached out to Donald Trump and World Liberty for comment on the allegations.
Sun, a vocal supporter of Trump and his cryptocurrency policies, accused "certain individuals" affiliated with World Liberty of acting contrary to the president's principles.
"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,"
he stated in a social media post announcing the legal action.
Sun is the founder of the multi-billion dollar crypto project TRON. He initially invested $45 million (£33 million) in World Liberty and noted that at times, his WLFI tokens were valued at over $1 billion (£740 million).
Since September, the value of a single WLFI token has dropped sharply from 31 cents to just under 8 cents.
Sun indicated that his investment was motivated by the Trump family's involvement with the project and his longstanding advocacy for cryptocurrencies. Additionally, he purchased $100 million worth of Trump’s meme coins in July 2025.
However, Sun alleges that the management of World Liberty, including co-founder Chase Herro, is exploiting the Trump brand to generate profits through fraudulent means.
In his complaint, filed on Tuesday in a federal court in San Francisco, Sun contends that initial assurances to token holders about the ability to trade the currency in the future were "false and misleading."
While the tokens became tradeable for the general public, Sun asserts that World Liberty has prevented him from selling any of his tokens and is now threatening to "burn" them, effectively deleting them.
WLFI has denied any wrongdoing and accused Sun of "playing the victim while making baseless allegations to cover up his own misconduct."
Investors have also expressed concerns about World Liberty borrowing against the value of its tokens.
Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has closed its investigation into Sun. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, questioned whether the investigation was related to Sun’s investments in Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures. Sun had previously been accused of paying prominent influencers to promote his companies on social media without disclosing those payments.
World Liberty's co-founders include Donald Trump and Eric Trump.
