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ToggleA conflict over governance, asset lock-up, and wallet freezing has led to a public split between Tron founder Justin Sun and World Liberty Financial, a DeFi project owned by the Trump family. Justin Sun, who claims to have invested "a significant amount of capital" as an early investor—reportedly around $75 million by foreign media—is now accusing WLFI of manipulating governance votes through opaque means and has allegedly frozen his wallet. The two sides are exchanging barbs, and the threat of litigation has surfaced.
76% of voting rights, 10 wallets: Justin Sun names and calls for addressing the issue of opaque governance.
The trigger for the incident was a governance proposal from WLFI in March of this year that determined the token lock-up period. In a post on X on Sunday, Justin Sun pointed out that more than 76% of the votes were concentrated in 10 wallets, key information was deliberately concealed, meaningful participation was restricted, and the result was predetermined before the vote.
In his post, he wrote : "The governance votes used to endorse these actions were not conducted through fair or transparent procedures. Voters were deprived of crucial information, their substantive participation was suppressed, and the outcome was predetermined."
Justin Sun went further, accusing WLFI of retaining a "backdoor freeze" function that can lock tokens in specific addresses at the smart contract level, directly contradicting the core principles of DeFi: decentralization and censorship resistance. He described WLFI's practices as "treating the crypto community as an ATM," stating that this action is "unfair and has never been authorized by any fair, transparent, or benevolent community governance program."
$75M invested, locked and frozen: Justin Sun's loss list
According to on-chain data and foreign media tracking, Justin Sun has been buying WLFI since the end of 2024, with a total investment estimated at about $75 million. However, as of recently, its market value has shrunk to about $43.45 million, resulting in a paper loss of more than 30%.
After WLFI tokens were opened for trading in September 2025, Justin Sun attempted to transfer approximately $9 million worth of tokens, but the platform flagged him as a risk and froze his wallet via a smart contract. This action instantly turned Justin Sun from a supporter into one of the most vocal critics and sparked widespread skepticism about the authenticity of "decentralized governance."
WLFI retorted: "Using the victim card" and threatening legal action.
In response to Justin Sun's public accusations, WLFI stood firm. The official statement directly countered: "Justin's favorite tactic is to play the victim while using baseless accusations to cover up his own misconduct." WLFI also clearly stated that it will take legal action against Justin Sun's claims.
The controversy has also spilled over to another front – WLFI has been revealed to be lending stablecoins on the DeFi lending platform Dolomite, using its own governance token as collateral. One of Dolomite's co-founders is Corey Caplan, WLFI's CTO, further fueling concerns about a conflict of interest.
In response, WLFI stated that it plays the role of an "anchor borrower," which generates revenue for the platform and creates value for token holders, emphasizing that it is "one of the largest suppliers and borrowers in the WLFI ecosystem." However, this explanation failed to quell market doubts—the WLFI token fell to a record low of $0.07 last Saturday after the news spread.
