World Liberty Financial has filed a defamation lawsuit in Florida against Tron founder Justin Sun, escalating a legal battle between the Trump family-linked crypto platform and one of its largest investors.
The lawsuitfiled Monday in the Eleventh Judicial District Court for Miami-Dade County, accused Sun of making false public statements about World Liberty and violating the terms of the WLFI token sale through alleged prohibited transfers, miniature sales and straw purchases.
The lawsuit also accused Sun of spreading defamatory statements about the crypto platform, seeking a court-ordered withdrawal from the founder and damages. Sunny negative allegations in a Monday post on X, calling the lawsuit a “worthless PR stunt” and stating that he looks forward to winning the case in court.
The lawsuit comes less than two weeks after Sun sued World Liberty over the freeze of its WLFI tokens. This dispute has intensified scrutiny of the project’s token control and governance structure.
The escalating legal battle follows a period of growing opposition to the crypto platform, which has come under scrutiny over a proposal to add another two-year lock-up period for early investors holding the WLFI token, Cointelegraph reported on April 16.
Sun called the proposal “one of the most absurd management frauds I have ever seen.”
WLFI lawsuit against Justin Sun. Source: World Liberty Financial / Businesswire
According to a white report by World Liberty, US President Donald Trump and his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, are listed as co-founders of the platform. paper.
Related: Justin Sun is pressing WLFI to identify wallets subject to freeze powers
According to the lawsuit, Sun was fully aware of WLFI’s rights to freeze the tokens
Sun’s WLFI token address was blacklisted in September 2025 after blockchain data platforms flagged it for a transfer amount of approximately $9 million. Sun stated that his pre-sale tokens were unreasonably frozen and insisted that the team unlock his investment.
However, the lawsuit states that Sun was “fully aware of World Liberty’s right to freeze user tokens to protect token holders and the community” and that it agreed to this in the project’s Terms of Sale.
“Rather than acting in good faith, Justin Sun chose to defame World Liberty – repeatedly, publicly and to his millions of followers,” said Tom Clare, a lawyer for World Liberty Financial, adding that the lawsuit was a “last resort” measure intended to protect token holders and employees.
The lawsuit alleges that Sun previously agreed to the “freeze authority” of WLFI before publicly calling it a hidden “trapdoor” for the calculated purpose of “harming World Liberty while potentially benefiting its own financial position.”
The lawsuit deepens WLFI’s previous management concerns after a March vote showed that 76% of its voting power came from 10 portfolios. Sun called it a disturbing sign of concentrated influence. WLFI responded with a clapback and accused Sun of spreading baseless allegations to cover up its own misconduct and threatened legal action.
WLFI/USD, all-time chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
The WLFI token rose 5% in the 24 hours to 1:43 p.m. UTC on Monday, but has fallen more than 80% since launch, According to to CoinMarketCap data.
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