Billionaire Investor Sues Donald Trump’s Crypto Venture For Defrauding Him Out of $45 Million Investment

Donald Trump’s crypto venture is being sued by billionaire Justin Sun. He filed a lawsuit on April 21 in a California federal court. Sun alleged that he invested millions of dollars in a crypto project backed by the president. However, it was allegedly obtained through fraud, and the project is now “on the verge of collapse.”

Over the years, Trump’s family has been involved in several crypto endeavors, which have raised concerns about foreign influence and conflict of interest. World Liberty Financial was involved in a $2 billion transaction by MGM, a state–owned UAE firm, in 2025.

Trump is listed as the “chief crypto advocate" of World Liberty Financial. His sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, are involved in the management of the company along with Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff’s son, Zach Witkoff.

Trump’s youngest son, Barron Trump, 20, is listed as the “DeFi (decentralized finance) visionary” of the company. Deals involving the firm have drawn scrutiny from legal experts, who say they could potentially violate the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

On Monday, Justin Sun filed a 52-page complaint identifying himself as an investor in the company. The lawsuit was filed by Sun and his corporate entities against World Liberty Financial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

In the complaint, Sun stated that he “is a globally recognized entrepreneur in the crypto industry and the founder of the TRON blockchain network whose native digital TRX tokens currently have a market capitalization of over $31 billion, making them among the top ten most valuable digital assets in the world.”

Justin Sun alleged that he “lawfully purchased” crypto from World Liberty Financial in the form of “cryptographically secured digital $WLFI tokens, which at the time were valued at over $1 billion.” Sun said he has been a supporter of “President Donald Trump and the Trump family” for years. In 2024, when WLF launched, he said he was approached to make an investment.

Sun said he invested $45 million at that time. He initially made “a decisive anchor investment” of $30 million, followed by another $15 million. He claimed he made the investment “not only because of the project’s claims that it would promote adoption of decentralized finance—an issue Mr. Sun cares deeply about and to which he has devoted much of his life’s work—but also because of the Trump family’s association with the project.”

Sun said that at the time, WLF was struggling with “lackluster demand” for its token. However, when the company appointed him as an advisor, “all that changed.”

However, in his complaint, Sun alleged that WLF made him “a prime target of their fraudulent scheme,” which led him and his corporate entities to incur hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

The lawsuit states, “To date, World Liberty Financial has raised approximately $550 million through $WLFI token sales, a 2,400% increase since Mr. Sun lent his name and credibility to the project.” The billionaire, Justin Sun, accused WLF of inducing his investments through fraud, breach of contract, freezing his tokens several times, scheming to induce additional investments, and even “threatening to burn” his tokens.

In addition, the lawsuit states that the company reported him to law enforcement with the intent of defaming him. Sun and his companies are seeking a judgment ordering WLF “to unfreeze the $WLFI tokens that Plaintiffs purchased.”

He is seeking monetary damages through a jury trial, as well as a ruling that prevents the company from “seizing, burning, destroying, or encumbering any of Plaintiffs’ $WLFI tokens.”