Trump Crypto Venture Sues Justin Sun in Escalating Token Dispute

World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto venture, sued billionaire entrepreneur Justin Sun on Monday in Miami-Dade County, escalating a dispute that has quickly turned from partnership to courtroom fight over token controls, market conduct and investor protections.

The company accused Sun of defamation and of using prohibited token transfers, straw purchases and short sales while knowing World Liberty had the power to freeze user tokens. It also posted its complaint on X and said Sun had mounted a “public smear campaign.” Sun had previously filed his own lawsuit in California on April 21, accusing World Liberty of illegally freezing his holdings and secretly installing tools that blocked him from selling tokens after they became tradable in September 2025.

At the center of the fight are Sun’s 4 billion WLFI tokens, a stake that was worth about $264 million after the latest lawsuit news. Sun said the holdings had been worth roughly $320 million when he sued in April, and he claimed World Liberty threatened to “burn” his tokens. World Liberty countered that it froze tokens owned by one of Sun’s companies “to protect World Liberty and the broader community of $WLFI holders.”

The market has already absorbed the dispute as another blow to a token that has struggled since launch. WLFI jumped about 12% after the May 4 lawsuit, but it was still down roughly 72% from its September 1, 2025 trading debut. CBS News reported the token was trading around 6 cents and had lost about 81% of its value over the past year, underscoring how sharply sentiment has deteriorated even as the legal battle intensifies.

The case also carries political weight because of World Liberty’s ties to Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Zach Witkoff and Chase Herro. Reuters has reported that the Trump family has already made more than $1 billion from World Liberty, and that the venture’s bylaws route 75% of WLFI token-sale revenue to the Trumps. That structure puts a spotlight on disclosure standards and governance at a moment when crypto investors are increasingly asking whether politically connected projects are being policed any differently from the rest of the market.

Sun was once one of World Liberty’s most important early backers. He bought $45 million worth of WLFI tokens in late 2024 and early 2025 and was named an adviser, while Eric Trump called him “a great friend and an icon in the crypto space” in a June 16, 2025 post on X. Sun later said on September 1, 2025 that he believed the project would be “one of the biggest and most important projects in crypto.” Now, that alliance has given way to a legal test of who controls token holders’ rights when a project decides to freeze assets and defend its rules in court.