World Liberty Financial sues Justin Sun; WLFI token gains 12%

World Liberty Financial filed a defamation lawsuit against Tron founder Justin Sun on Monday in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County. The complaint seeks unspecified damages and a public retraction and alleges Sun ran a paid campaign to drive down the WLFI token after the project froze wallets tied to him. WLFI traded near $0.06 on Monday, up about 12% in the previous 24 hours.

The filing accuses Sun of using press outlets, paid influencers and bot accounts to amplify false claims and suppress the token’s market price. The project cited a post on X it attributed to Sun in which he said his actions aimed to drive the token price “to shit.”

World Liberty Financial traces the dispute to an on-chain freeze in September 2025 that locked wallets it attributes to Sun. The complaint states the project froze 540 million unlocked WLFI and 2.4 billion locked WLFI. It alleges a vehicle linked to Sun, Blue Anthem, transferred tokens to Binance in violation of an investor agreement and says those transfers, along with alleged short selling, justified the freeze.

Sun rejected the defamation claim, calling the filing a “meritless PR stunt” in a post on X and saying he stands by his actions and will defend the case in court. The complaint notes Sun initially invested about $30 million in WLFI and later increased his stake to roughly $75 million.

The dispute has produced parallel litigation. Sun filed a separate suit in federal court in California in late April accusing World Liberty Financial of fraud and breach of contract. Both cases focus on whether the project’s smart contract and sale documents adequately disclosed the ability to freeze tokens.

Sun contends the project concealed a blacklist function inside its smart contract. World Liberty Financial maintains the freeze authority was disclosed in its Terms of Sale and in Sun’s purchase agreements and describes its governance process as community-led and transparent.

WLFI’s price has declined more than 75% from its all-time high since the freeze became public. Upcoming court filings are expected to examine smart contract language, purchase agreements and whether public posts cross legal thresholds for defamation.