A lawsuit filed by World Liberty Financial (WLF), the crypto firm associated with the Trump family, on Monday targets Tron founder Justin Sun. The suit alleges that Sun manipulated the market by shorting their WLFI token last fall and subsequently defamed the company after his assets were frozen.
This legal action follows a lawsuit initiated by Sun against World Liberty just weeks prior, in which he accused the firm of freezing his investment unlawfully.
Filed in Florida state court, Monday’s complaint alleges that Sun orchestrated “a large-scale short-selling campaign” aimed at depressing $WLFI’s price when it first became publicly tradable in September. The lawsuit claims that World Liberty froze Sun’s substantial token holdings to avert further damage to the company and its investors, invoking rights granted under his token unlock agreement.
Following the freeze, Sun reportedly demanded the release of his tokens while claiming innocence, then purportedly threatened litigation against World Liberty. His threats included statements about igniting “World Liberty on fire” and reducing WLFI’s market value significantly.
In a subsequent lawsuit last month, Sun defended himself as an admirer of President Donald Trump but criticized World Liberty for violating his investor rights by freezing his tokens.
Today’s defamation allegations from World Liberty, announced via X, were dismissed by Sun as “a meritless PR stunt.” In related social media posts, he accused the company’s operators of exploiting the crypto community and labeled several Trump family members involved in leadership roles as unethical. The firm countered by asserting that these statements defamed its reputation.
World Liberty also accuses Sun of employing social media influencers and bot accounts to spread false claims. Despite dismissing the lawsuit today on X, Sun expressed his eagerness to contest it legally.
Sun has long supported Trump’s crypto ventures, purchasing millions in WLFI tokens and becoming the top holder of Trump’s Solana-based meme coin (TRUMP) last year. Earlier this year, the SEC settled a fraud case against Sun involving the Trump family’s projects, leading to the resignation of its enforcement chief.
However, relations between Sun and the Trumps have soured recently. Notably absent from a recent Mar-a-Lago event for top holders of the TRUMP coin was Sun.