CALIFORNIA — Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun sued World Liberty Financial in a California federal court this month, alleging the digital currency venture froze his token holdings and threatened to permanently delete them from his digital wallet. World Liberty Financial is a digital currency business cofounded by President Donald Trump and his sons.

The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty Financial secretly installed tools to prevent the sale of Sun's tokens after they became tradable in September 2025. Sun, the Hong Kong-based founder of the Tron cryptocurrency, bought $45 million of WLFI tokens, totaling about 3 billion tokens, and was later awarded 1 billion additional WLFI tokens after being named as an adviser to the company. His portfolio of 4 billion WLFI tokens is worth roughly $320 million based on the latest WLFI price.

Sun described himself as "one of World Liberty's anchor investors." In September 2025, he claimed the company had frozen his token holdings and had embedded a "backdoor blacklisting function" in the blockchain contracts for the tokens. He wrote that the function gave World Liberty Financial "unilateral power" to "freeze, restrict, and effectively confiscate the property rights" of token holders without cause or recourse.

The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty Financial representatives repeatedly contacted and pressured Sun to invest additional capital between April and July 2025, requesting he commit to acquiring $200 million in a separate World Liberty stablecoin token and take an equity stake in the company. He said he had tried in good faith to resolve his complaints and that the company's team refused his requests to unfreeze his tokens and restore his rights as a token holder.

A measure proposed by World Liberty Financial last week would restrict early investors holding a combined 17 billion tokens from trading any of their tokens until 2030. He said he strongly opposes the new governance proposal but could not vote on it because his early investor tokens had been frozen.

World Liberty Financial declined to comment on the lawsuit. A spokesperson said Sun is not an advisor at the company and has never held an operational role there. The company posted on X: "We have the contracts. We have the evidence. We have the truth. See you in court pal."

WLFI tokens do not carry ownership in the company, and holders are not entitled to dividends, although they have a limited say in governance. Company bylaws state that 75 percent of the revenue from WLFI token sales is routed to the Trumps, and the Trump family has made more than $1 billion from the venture. The lawsuit said Sun has long been and remains a supporter of President Trump and the Trump family.

In March 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission settled a 2023 lawsuit against Sun for $10 million. That suit alleged fraud, selling unregistered crypto securities and hiding payments to celebrities to promote his products. Sun made no admission of wrongdoing as part of the settlement.