World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture co-founded by former US President Donald Trump and his son Eric Trump, is facing a lawsuit from one of its billionaire investors, Justin Sun. Sun has accused the company of an "illegal scheme" to freeze his WLFI tokens and strip him of voting rights on governance matters. He alleges that his tokens, valued at over $1 billion at times, have been blocked from sale without justification, and the company has threatened to permanently "burn" them.
In the complaint filed in a San Francisco federal court, Sun argued that World Liberty Financial is being used as a "golden opportunity to leverage the Trump brand to profit through fraud." He implicated other co-founders, including Chase Herro and Zach Witkoff (son of Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff), claiming their actions contradict the president's purported values. Sun stated that initial promises about future tradability of tokens were "false and misleading," as he has been prevented from selling any tokens despite broader market availability.
World Liberty Financial has denied the allegations, with Zach Witkoff calling Sun's lawsuit a "desperate attempt to deflect attention from Sun's own misconduct." Witkoff claimed that Sun engaged in "misconduct that required World Liberty to take action to protect itself and its users," leading to the token freeze. Eric Trump dismissed the suit as "more ridiculous than spending $6m on a banana duct-taped to a wall," referencing Sun's 2024 purchase and consumption of a controversial artwork.
Justin Sun, founder of the multi-billion dollar TRON project, is a vocal supporter of Trump's stance on cryptocurrencies. He invested $45 million in World Liberty Financial and bought $100 million of Trump's meme coins in July 2025. However, the value of WLFI tokens has plummeted from 31 cents to under 8 cents since September, raising concerns among investors about the venture's stability and reports of borrowing against token values.
Meanwhile, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dropped its investigation into Sun, with Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, questioning whether this decision is tied to his investments in Trump's crypto projects. In a related development, Trump's media company, Trump Media & Technology, replaced its CEO Devin Nunes after its share price fell by almost two-thirds over the past year, highlighting broader challenges within the Trump business empire amid struggles to attract users beyond the president's core base.
Source: www.bbc.com