Cryptocurrency champion Justin Sun is suing World Liberty Financial, a company founded by President Trump and his sons, alleging they froze his token assets and took other heavy-handed steps against him.
Mr. Sun alleges in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that World Liberty Financial prevented him from selling coins after he balked at buying hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of new coins created by the company.
The lawsuit amounts to a stunning break with the Trump family.
Mr. Sun had promoted World Liberty Financial and bought a large number of tokens from the startup after Mr. Trump’s election to a second term.
Mr. Sun said he remains an ardent supporter of the president.
“Unfortunately, certain individuals on the World Liberty project team have been operating the project in a manner that goes against President Trump’s values,” he posted on X. “They wrongfully froze all of my tokens, stripped me of my right to vote on governance proposals, and have threatened to permanently destroy my tokens by “burning’ them — all without any proper justification.”
Mr. Sun is no stranger to controversy. He paid a a $10 million penalty in March to resolve a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission that alleged he sold unregistered securities in his promotion of Tron and BitTorrent tokens.
Democrats alleged Mr. Sun received lenient treatment from the SEC under Mr. Trump, though Mr. Sun’s representatives denied any political quid pro quo.
Mr. Sun now is battling members of the Trump family who run World Liberty Financial.
“They have left me with no choice but to turn to the courts,” he posted on social media. “All I want is to be treated the same as every other early investor who received tokens — no better, no worse.
Zach Witkoff, a co-founder and CEO of World Liberty Financial, said the suit was “a desperate attempt to deflect attention from Sun’s own misconduct.”
“His claims are entirely meritless, and World Liberty looks forward to getting the case thrown out promptly,” Mr. Witkoff posted on social media. “World Liberty will continue to take all necessary steps to protect its community.”
One of the president’s sons, Eric Trump, also slammed Mr. Sun.
“The only thing more ridiculous than this lawsuit is spending $6 million on a banana duct-taped to a wall. We are incredibly proud of the @worldlibertyfi team,” Eric Trump posted on X.
Mr. Trump was referring to Mr. Sun’s $6.2 million purchase of an artwork, titled “Comedian,” of a banana taped to a wall. Mr. Sun later ate the banana in an attention-grabbing event.
