Public dispute between Tron founder Justin Sun and Trump-related crypto projects The incident escalated on Wednesday after Sun harshly criticized a new governance proposal, calling it “one of the most ridiculous governance scams he has ever seen.”
In a long post on
He also claimed that he and other major shareholders have been excluded from the process, claiming that tokens related to the approximately 4% of voting rights he controls have been frozen.
More broadly, Sun questioned whether the vote had any real authority, claiming that control over the protocol lay with anonymous wallet addresses, including multi-signature settings that could override results and separate accounts with the power to blacklist users.
“This proposal is not governance,” Sun said in the post. “This is an exercise of power by a small number of individuals who are orchestrating further consolidation of power and expropriation of property.”
WLFI proposal
Criticism has focused on WLFI’s new proposal that would overhaul token locking across the ecosystem. More than 62 billion WLFI tokens will be subject to new terms, including multi-year locking and vesting schedules.
Under the plan, tokens held by insiders such as team members, advisors and partners will face a two-year lock-up, followed by a three-year gradual release, along with a 10% token burn upon opt-in. Early backers will face a slightly shorter redemption period, but will not be burned. In total, up to 4.5 billion tokens may be permanently destroyed.
Under the proposal, holders who do not accept the new terms will be locked in indefinitely.
Sun is not the only one to object. Simon Dedic, founder of Moonrock Capital, said early investors were actually “resilient”.
“All the early investors in $WLFI who thought they were sitting on huge profits have been hardened by the Trump family themselves,” Dedic wrote on X, adding that the move appears to provide the project with another opportunity to extract value from investors. He also criticized what he called “blatant misconduct” and made little attempt to hide it.
A spokesperson for World Liberty Financial told CoinDesk that the proposal “aims to further align the long-term interests of all participants in the WLFI ecosystem,” adding that its goal is to “ensure long-term participation in our ecosystem in the best possible way and help ensure healthy market supply.”
Disputes escalate
The backlash marks the latest breakdown in Sun’s relationship with the project.
Earlier this week, WLFI threatened legal action, saying it had “contracts” and “evidence” after Sun accused the team of exploiting users through DeFi transactions.
The dispute has been going on for months. In September, WLFI blacklisted a Sun-related blockchain address that held approximately $107 million worth of governance tokens at the time. This marks a sharp reversal from late 2024, when Sun was a major backer, investing $30 million in WLFI tokens and taking on an advisory role to help support the project.
Tensions increased after WLFI deposited $5 billion of its own tokens into lending protocol Dolomite (one of its advisors is a co-founder of the protocol) and borrowed approximately $75 million in stablecoins. The token fell 12% the next day, hitting an all-time low, before Sun publicly accused the project of treating users like a “personal ATM,” sparking the latest legal threat.