World Liberty investor Justin Sun claims Trump crypto venture ‘secretly’ installed tool to freeze user holdings

by Tom Wilson

LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) – A major investor in U.S. President Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture has claimed the firm “secretly” implemented a tool to unilaterally freeze and restrict private holdings of the WLFI token.

Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun posted on social media platform ‌X on Sunday, saying without providing evidence that World Liberty had built what he described as a “backdoor blacklisting function” into the blockchain-based contracts used for the tokens.

Sun wrote that the move gives World Liberty “unilateral authority” to “freeze, restrict, and effectively seize the ownership rights” of any token holder “without cause and without recourse.”

Reuters was unable to determine whether World Liberty owned or operated such a vehicle. The news agency was also unable to identify any details about Sun’s business activities.

The official World Liberty account at

Contacted for comment, a spokesperson for the company referred Reuters to its posts on X. Sun did not respond to Reuters’ message on Telegram, and his spokesman did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

World Liberty is the most prominent among the many lucrative crypto businesses co-founded by the Trump family. The crypto company said that at its 2024 launch, it will give small investors power over financial flows through its yet-to-be-launched “decentralized finance” application.

More than $460 million was generated for the Trump family in the first half of 2025, according to a Reuters analysis https://www.reuters.com/investigations/inside-trump-familys-global-crypto-cash-machine-2025-10-28/ published last year.

In late 2024, Sun became the largest publicly traded investor in then-fledgling World Liberty, spending tens of millions of dollars on the WLFI token and being appointed as an advisor to the firm. He later increased his holdings of tokens to at least $75 million, according to social media posts in January 2025.

Sun told a New York Times reporter in 2024 that his investment in what he called the Trump family’s “perfect project” was a vote of confidence.

In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled a $10 million lawsuit filed in 2023 against Sun https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/justin-sun-settles-sec-fraud-case-10-million-2026-03-05/. The lawsuit alleged fraud, selling unregistered crypto securities and concealing payments to celebrities to promote their products. Sun admitted no wrongdoing.

World Liberty’s risk disclosures state that the company may block and freeze wallet addresses and associated tokens that it determines are associated with illegality or activity that violates its terms.

Other crypto companies, such as Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, also have the ability to freeze users’ tokens. According to previous statements made by Tether, the company usually does this when it suspects illegal use or upon requests from law enforcement authorities.

The SEC declined to comment on U.S. rules governing such freezes. Cryptocurrency remains a regulatory gray area in the US, where the SEC does not have comprehensive jurisdiction over the industry.

In a post published on X on Sunday, Sun claimed he was the “first and single biggest victim” of the so-called World Liberty vehicle, pointing out that his token was frozen in September. At the time, World Liberty said it had no intention of blacklisting anyone and that it was responding to “malicious or high-risk activities that could harm members of the community.”

On Monday, Sun on X cited unspecified blockchain records that it said showed how its digital wallet was “blacklisted” by a single account with special administrative powers.

Sun claimed this was proof that “one person, one person” at World Liberty had the authority to freeze the assets of any token holder. “Who is this person?” he wrote.

Reuters was unable to review records that Sun did not share.

(Reporting by Tom Wilson in London; Editing by Tom Lasseter, Catherine Evans and Lisa Shumaker)