Justin Sun, founder of the Tron layer-1 blockchain, accused World Liberty Financial (WLFI) — a DeFi platform co-founded by Donald Trump’s sons — of imposing lengthy lock-up periods on its governance token and withholding key information from voters. Sun said he was an early investor who put “significant capital” into WLFI and criticized a March governance proposal to set token lock-up periods, noting that more than 76% of voting tokens in that vote came from just 10 wallets.
In a post on X (translated), Sun said the governance process “was not conducted through fair or transparent procedures. Key information was withheld from voters, meaningful participation was restricted, and outcomes were predetermined.” WLFI replied on X, calling Sun’s comments victim-playing and baseless, and threatened legal action over his statements.
The controversy intensified as community members reacted to reports that WLFI used its own governance tokens as collateral to borrow stablecoins. The WLFI token plunged to an all-time low of about $0.07 after disclosure that wallets tied to World Liberty Financial had used WLFI tokens as collateral on Dolomite, a DeFi platform co-founded by WLFI’s CTO, Corey Caplan. WLFI said it serves 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 practice unjust, saying treating the crypto community like a “personal ATM” was never authorized through a fair, transparent community governance process. Cointelegraph contacted WLFI but had not received a response by publication time.
The episode coincides with broader backlash against WLFI and renewed scrutiny of Trump-linked crypto ventures, including concerns about insider use of platform tokens and governance transparency. Related coverage has noted phased unlock votes and early holder pushback as the community debates how WLFI should manage tokenomics and governance moving forward.
