Justin Sun claims WLFI tokens ‘unreasonably frozen’
The Trump-backed DeFi project is believed to have blacklisted Sun’s wallet, triggering market pressure
T. Schneider/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks
Tron founder Justin Sun claims his WLFI, the native tokens of Trump-linked World Liberty Financial, has been “unreasonably frozen” after a blacklisting on Thursday.
Sun is, according to the post, unable to transfer or use his multi-million dollar stash of WLFI after supposedly making an onchain move of roughly $9 million worth of the asset.
The reported blacklisting, which can be traced onchain, marked one of the first governance tests for the project, launched by President Donald Trump (who is designated “co-founder emeritus”) and his family, who introduced its token earlier this week.
Since the incident, Justin Sun — who invested at least $75 million into WLFI and also pledged $100 million toward Trump’s memecoin — has posted on X multiple times regarding the situation and asking the World Liberty team to unlock his holdings.
He also claimed that US-listed crypto stocks are an “undervalued opportunity” and said he’d “market buy $10 million worth of ALTS and $10 million worth of WLFI.”
WLFI fell sharply during Thursday’s trading session, dropping more than 20% before partially recovering, according to Blockworks data. It currently idles around 64% down over the past seven days.
Onchain data from analytics firm Arkham shows Sun’s address sent 50 million WLFI tokens to a wallet associated with crypto exchange HTX shortly before the freeze.
The tokens appear to have been later routed through additional addresses, including a Binance-linked deposit wallet, adding to speculation about large-scale sell pressure. Some 60 million WLFI were subsequently transferred into an HTX Gnosis Safe Proxy.
World Liberty Financial has not issued a statement on why the wallet was frozen and did not respond to requests for comment from Blockworks prior to publication.
Sun described tokens as “sacred and inviolable” and said unilateral actions threatened investor confidence. Sun also denied that the transfers amounted to sales, framing them as small exchange deposit tests.
In 2023, the US SEC, under Chair Gary Gensler, filed a lawsuit against Sun in March 2023, alleging unregistered offers and sales of Tron (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens and manipulative wash trading.
However, the suit was paused at the joint request of the SEC and Sun as both sides explored a potential settlement. However, no such settlement has been finalized since that time.
World Liberty Financial itself has raised questions about governance and concentration of control. Founded in 2024, the Trump family holds a 60% controlling stake and stands to receive 75% of the platform’s token-sale revenue as of early 2025.
It has also drawn scrutiny for a $2 billion investment from an Abu Dhabi-backed entity and the introduction of a proprietary stablecoin. Critics, including The New Yorker, have warned that the project blurs the line between private gain and public influence given President Trump’s political position.
This is a developing story.
This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor Jeffrey Albus before publication.
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