Billionaire Justin Sun Accused Trump Family of Extortion. He Invested Millions in Their Cryptocurrency
According to Sun, World Liberty (co-founded by Trump himself and his son Eric) "froze" all tokens belonging to him and deprived him of his voting rights on company management issues.
Photo: Edwin Koo/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Billionaire and founder of the TRON cryptocurrency project, Justin Sun, sued World Liberty Financial, a company owned by the family of US President Donald Trump, writes the BBC.
Sun accused World Liberty, which issues cryptocurrency, of extortion and implementing an "illegal scheme" to confiscate its issued WLFI tokens.
According to Sun, World Liberty (co-founded by Trump himself and his son Eric) "froze" all tokens belonging to him and deprived him of his voting rights on company management issues.
World Liberty rejected these accusations, stating that Sun "is trying to portray himself as a victim and making baseless claims to hide his own unsavory actions."
Sun is known as a supporter of Trump and his cryptocurrency policies. However, he accused "certain individuals" associated with World Liberty Financial of actions that contradict the values of the US President.
"They groundlessly froze all my tokens, took away my right to vote on governance proposals, and threatened to irreversibly destroy my tokens by 'burning' them without any legal justification," Sun stated on social media.
Sun is known as the founder of the TRON cryptocurrency project, which issues the Tronix cryptocurrency (it is not related to World Liberty Financial's operations). The businessman initially invested $45 million in WLFI and claimed that the value of the tokens he purchased reached over $1 billion.
However, since last September, the value of the WLFI token has fallen from 31 cents to less than 8 cents.
What the Accusations Entail
Sun explained his involvement in World Liberty by his long-standing support for cryptocurrency ventures and the fact that the company belongs to Donald Trump's family.
In July 2025, he also bought Trump's memecoins (a cryptocurrency created by the US President) for $100 million.
At the same time, Sun claims that World Liberty managers, including its other co-founder Chase Hera, see the company as a "golden opportunity to use Trump's trademark for enrichment through fraud."
In his complaint, filed Tuesday with the federal court in San Francisco, Sun writes that the company's promises to provide token holders with the ability to trade cryptocurrency in the future "were false and misleading."
Sun states that at the moment the tokens became tradable, World Liberty Financial did not allow him to sell any of them, and now threatens to "burn" his cryptocurrency, completely destroying it.
Zach Witkoff, another co-founder of World Liberty Financial and son of Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, called Sun's lawsuit "a desperate attempt to deflect attention from his own indecent actions."
"His claims are baseless, and World Liberty is prepared to ensure the court swiftly dismisses this case," Zach Witkoff said. He added that Sun was guilty of "misconduct that forced World Liberty to take measures for its protection and the protection of its users."
"The only thing dumber than this lawsuit was spending $6 million on a banana taped to a wall with duct tape," Eric Trump added.
He was referring to Sun's purchase at a Sotheby's auction in late 2024 for $6.2 million of one of the most famous installations of recent years – Maurizio Cattelan's "Comedian" (which consists of a banana taped with duct tape). Sun later ate the banana, calling it a "unique artistic experience."
Investors also raised concerns about World Liberty taking out loans collateralized by the value of its tokens.
Closed Investigation
The US Securities and Exchange Commission recently halted its investigation into Sun's activities. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren suggested that this decision might be related to the businessman's involvement in Trump's cryptocurrency projects.
Accusations against Sun included that he paid influencers to promote his companies on social media but did not publicly disclose such payments.
Meanwhile, the shares of another internet-related project by Donald Trump – his social network Truth Social – sharply declined in value. The company owning the social network fired its CEO, former Californian congressman Devin Nunes.
Over the past year, Trump Media & Technology shares have fallen by almost two-thirds. This firm has yet to attract a significant number of new users to the social network; Truth Social is primarily known as the platform where Trump posts his messages.
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