Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain, publicly accused World Liberty Financial (WLFI) — a DeFi platform co-founded by two of Donald Trump’s sons — of imposing long token lock-ups and hiding important details from governance voters. Sun said he was an early investor who provided “significant capital” to WLFI and criticized a March governance proposal that set those lock-up periods, noting that more than 76% of voting tokens in that vote were held in just 10 wallets.
Posting on X (translated), Sun asserted the governance process “was not conducted through fair or transparent procedures,” adding that key information had been withheld, meaningful participation was restricted, and outcomes appeared predetermined. WLFI answered on X, calling Sun’s claims victim-playing and baseless and warning that it might pursue legal action over his statements.
The dispute grew after reports that WLFI used its own governance tokens as collateral to borrow stablecoins. The WLFI token fell to an all-time low near $0.07 following disclosures that wallets tied to WLFI had used tokens as collateral on Dolomite, a DeFi platform co-founded by WLFI CTO Corey Caplan. WLFI responded by saying it acts as an “anchor” borrower to generate yield for the platform and value for token holders and described itself as “one of the largest suppliers and borrowers” in its ecosystem.
Sun called the borrowing practice unjust, saying treating the community like a “personal ATM” had not been approved through a fair, transparent governance process. Cointelegraph said it contacted WLFI but had not received a response by publication time.
The episode comes amid growing criticism of WLFI and renewed scrutiny of Trump-linked crypto ventures, with concerns focused on insider token use and governance transparency. Coverage has also highlighted phased unlock votes and early-holder pushback as the community debates how WLFI should handle tokenomics and governance going forward.