Entrepreneur Justin Sun sues US crypto venture over frozen tokens

Entrepreneur Justin Sun filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, accusing a US cryptocurrency platform of fraud and alleging he was blocked from withdrawing his assets.

In a San Francisco federal court filing reviewed by AFP, the Chinese-born crypto billionaire claims to have purchased $45 million worth of WLFI, an electronic currency launched by World Liberty Financial in October 2024.

To thank him for the investment -- at a time when WLFI was generating little initial interest -- World Liberty Financial executives appointed him as an advisor and awarded him an additional one billion WLFI tokens, the lawsuit says.

Sales to investors subsequently accelerated, and in March 2025, World Liberty Financial -- whose founders included US President Donald Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric Trump -- announced that it had sold $550 million worth of the digital currency.

World Liberty Financial is under speculation that the Trump family is distancing itself from the crypto project, with its site disclosing that none of Donald Trump, his family members or any director, officer or employee of Trump Organization is an officer, director or employee of the company.

Sun also acquired several million dollars' worth of $TRUMP, a meme coin marketed by Donald Trump just hours before his second-term inauguration in January 2025.

Initially non-transferable, WLFI became tradable on September 1, 2025, and is now publicly listed. Its value has since plummeted from 46 cents per unit to its current price of 8 cents.

Sun claims that his WLFI assets were unilaterally frozen by World Liberty Financial and that he has been unable to resell any of them to date.

According to him, platform executives even threatened to destroy his holdings if he attempted to take legal action.

Sun is demanding the unfreezing of his assets as well as compensatory damages for the harm he has suffered.

The 35-year-old crypto billionaire is the founder of the cryptocurrency platform TRON. In November 2024, he garnered worldwide attention by spending $6.2 million on an art piece featuring a banana duct-taped to a wall and then eating the fruit.

On Wednesday, Eric Trump, the US president's son and co-founder of World Liberty Financial, said on X: "The only thing more ridiculous than this lawsuit is spending $6 million on a banana taped to a wall."

In mid-April, World Liberty Financial in a post on X accused Sun of "making baseless allegations to cover up his own misconduct."

AFP and staff reporter