finance
World Liberty Financial Files Defamation Lawsuit Against Justin Sun
World Liberty Financial has sued crypto billionaire Justin Sun for defamation, alleging he conducted a short-and-distort scheme against its token. The suit follows Sun's earlier fraud lawsuit against the company. The Florida-based firm seeks damages and a retraction of Sun's public statements.
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World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance company launched in 2024 and backed by the Trump sons, filed a defamation lawsuit against crypto billionaire Justin Sun in Miami-Dade County state court on Monday. The filing comes days after Sun sued the company for fraud in California federal court on April 21, 2026.
Sun alleged that World Liberty Financial attempted to pressure him into investing hundreds of millions of dollars more into its USD1 stablecoin and froze his holdings when he refused.
In its complaint, World Liberty Financial stated that Sun orchestrated a smear campaign against the company after it froze his assets. The company reported discovering late last year that Sun was allegedly violating investment terms, including making unauthorized transfers of tokens to Binance, conducting straw purchases on behalf of undisclosed third parties, and engaging in suspected short-selling of the $WLFI token despite contractual prohibitions.
Sun's entity, Blue Anthem, began investing $30 million in $WLFI tokens starting in November 2024, eventually reaching a total of $45 million, and he received additional tokens for taking a board seat.
Financial alleged that Sun publicly praised the project as one of the biggest in crypto while secretly betting against it as part of the scheme. The company stated that Sun demanded hundreds of millions of dollars in a payout to stay quiet, and after refusal, he published claims on April 12, 2026, in English and Mandarin Chinese.
Those posts received roughly 4 million views and led to major media coverage, according to the complaint. As a result, at least one business deal collapsed, including a potential partnership with Native Market that the other party abandoned.
