A project linked to the Trump family has threatened its largest investor with legal action.
The DeFi platform World Liberty Financial (WLFI), run by the sons of former U.S. President Donald Trump, has been accused by TRON founder Justin Sun of using the community as a "personal ATM."
"Whoever is hiding behind this official account, step forward and identify yourself. Every action taken by the WLFI team to secretly implant backdoor controls over user assets, to freeze investor funds without disclosure or due process, and to treat the crypto community as a… https://t.co/NkxYv20eVj
— H.E. Justin Sun 👨🚀 🌞 (@justinsuntron) April 12, 2026
Sun accused the project of opaque management, claiming that the WLFI team unilaterally freezes, restricts, and confiscates the rights of any token holder "without warning, without explanation, and without the possibility of appeal."
"I was never informed, just like any other investor, that World Liberty had embedded a blacklist feature in the WLFI token smart contract. This is the opposite of decentralization. It’s a trap disguised as an open door," Sun wrote.
Representatives of the Trump sons' platform denied Sun's claims, labeling his criticism as "unfounded" and threatening legal action against him.
"Does anyone still believe @justinsuntron?
— WLFI (@worldlibertyfi) April 12, 2026
Justin’s favorite move is playing the victim while making baseless allegations to cover up his own misconduct.
Same playbook, different target. WLFI isn't the first.
We have the contracts. We have the evidence. We have the truth.
See…"
"Justin Sun’s favorite tactic is to play the victim while making unfounded accusations to cover up his own wrongdoing […] We have the contracts. We have the evidence. We have the truth. See you in court, buddy," the message stated.
The debate intensified amid community criticism of WLFI. Recently, it was revealed that the platform used its own governance tokens as collateral for loans.
Analysts described the model as "cyclical financing": a loan is secured against an asset that the borrower controls. The transaction was conducted through the DeFi protocol Dolomite, co-founded by World Liberty Financial advisor Corey Kaplan.
On-Chain Data Analysis
An expert known as banteg examined on-chain data and concluded that the WLFI token, launched in 2024, initially did not have a blacklist feature. However, the contract was upgradable.
"justin sun vs wlfi
— banteg (@banteg) April 12, 2026
the original token deployed sep 2024 had no blacklist and no seizure, but it was upgradable. the blacklist was added in v2 on aug 24, 2025. 11 months after sun invested and one week before trading opened. on nov 19, 2025, another upgrade added batch…"
The ability to block addresses was introduced in version v2 in August 2025—11 months after Sun's investment and just a week before trading opened. In November of the same year, developers added the ability for batch redistribution (essentially confiscation), justifying it as "saving funds from phishing."
The analyst also noted the flexible architecture of the WLFI vesting contract. This mechanism allows for precise dates for the first withdrawal, linear distribution settings, and the ability to split asset issuance into multiple stages (up to eight) for different investor groups.
However, the project did not restrict Sun with these mechanisms. He received 20% immediately upon launch, and then was penalized for using part of that amount (which he denied). The remaining 80% of tokens have no unlocking schedule. After more than seven months, they still cannot be withdrawn.
The vesting contract allocated a separate "category 3" for the TRON founder—he is the only user in it. The other 519 investors are in "category 1."
Just 14 minutes before Sun's wallet activation, WLFI set up "category 3" so that 20% of his 3 billion tokens became freely transferable from the moment trading commenced.
Once he gained access to the assets, within three days, Sun transferred 55 million coins, after which one of the controlling addresses blacklisted him. The same multisig uses 5 billion WLFI as collateral on Dolomite to raise $250 million in stablecoins.
"I urge World Liberty Financial to publicly disclose who controls the sole EOA wallet and the 3 out of 5 multisig managing the WLFI smart contract," Sun stated.
According to Bubblemaps, since September, the value of the TRON founder's frozen coins has already decreased by $80 million.
UPDATE: 🚨 Justin Sun’s locked $WLFI are down $80,000,000
— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) April 10, 2026
WLFI is down another -10% after the team used their own token as collateral to borrow $50M+ in stables, emptying the lending pool https://t.co/PQkrobP3TZ pic.twitter.com/FVdBKPdUPl
It is worth noting that in November 2024, Sun acquired 2 billion WLFI for $30 million, becoming the largest investor in the project.