Trump family-backed blockchain project freezes tokens of major backer Justin Sun

World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company backed by the family of US President Donald Trump, has frozen the tokens of Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain and one of the most vocal supporters of the venture, in a rare show of disharmony between the project and the Hong Kong-based crypto billionaire.

In a Friday post on social media platform X, Sun said his tokens on the World Liberty Financial blockchain were frozen, confirming data that the Trump venture had blacklisted Sun’s address with about 600 million unlocked WIFI tokens, which would be valued at about US$100 million based on the current price.

World Liberty Financial, which was founded in 2024 by the Trump family, did not say why Sun’s tokens were frozen. But the move came after the Tron founder had moved US$9 million worth of WLFI tokens and was blamed by some investors as a reason for the drop in WLFI price on Thursday.

Sun said his address “only conducted a few generic exchange deposit tests … without involving any buying or selling, which could not possibly have any impact on the market”. In the new post, Sun urged the WLFI team to unlock his tokens. “A truly great financial brand must be built on fairness, transparency, and trust – not on unilateral actions that freeze investor assets,” Sun wrote.

The incident was a fresh example of the complicated dynamics in the world of crypto, where conflicts of interests often take place in a murky manner.

The second Trump administration’s supportive stance on digital assets has led to increased entanglements between the Trump family and the crypto industry’s biggest personalities. Justin Sun, after first buying US$30 million worth of WLFI in November last year, has steadily increased his investment, and said earlier this week that WLFI would be “one of the biggest and most important projects in crypto”.

“As one of the early major investors in World Liberty Financial, I have contributed not only capital but also my trust and support for the future of this project”, Sun wrote on Friday. “My goal has always been to grow alongside the team and community, and to jointly build a strong and healthy WLF ecosystem.”