Billionaire backer sues Trump family's crypto firm over alleged extortion

World Liberty declined to comment; Eric Trump posted a response on X. Early investors remain unable to trade about 80% of their tokens, and a proposal to delay access to trading for at least two years is under consideration.

Sun and related entities filed a complaint in a San Francisco federal court accusing World Liberty of extortion and an illegal scheme to seize WLFI tokens, including alleged token freezing, burning and new blacklisting powers. Sun seeks to unfreeze tokens, damages, and protections against encumbrance.

World Liberty reportedly took out a loan using WLFI tokens as collateral; the company has said it has enough capital to avoid default.

Negotiations between Sun and World Liberty continued until late February 2026.

World Liberty agreed not to burn Sun’s tokens during negotiations that continued until late February 2026.

World Liberty implemented a change that allowed it to reallocate WLFI tokens from any user to another.

Chase Herro threatened to burn Sun’s WLFI tokens, which were worth about $776 million, according to Sun's complaint.

Sun says his relationship with World Liberty soured in 2025 after he declined to provide further investment and support.

Sun was awarded an additional 1 billion WLFI tokens for advising the project.

Justin Sun purchased 3 billion WLFI tokens for about $45 million as part of investments in WLFI tokens during 2024 and 2025.

The article reporting the lawsuit was published on April 22, 2026, providing details of Sun's complaint and responses from World Liberty's founders, as well as context about Sun's previous investments and public statements.

Justin Sun filed a complaint in a San Francisco federal court alleging an 'illegal scheme' to seize his WLFI tokens, claiming World Liberty froze all of his tokens, stripped him of his right to vote on governance issues, and threatened to permanently burn his tokens. World Liberty denies wrongdoing and accuses Sun of deflecting attention from his own misconduct.

Since September 2025, the price of a single WLFI token has fallen from about 31 cents to just under 8 cents.

Sun purchased $100 million of Trump's meme coins in July 2025, reflecting his continuing financial support for Trump-related crypto ventures.

In 2024, Justin Sun invested $45 million in World Liberty and said that, at times, WLFI tokens have been valued at more than $1 billion. He is described as an ardent supporter of President Trump and his cryptocurrency stance. In 2024 Sun bought, then ate, Maurizio Cattelan's banana artwork, an artist's piece that later became a widely discussed stunt.