A public dispute between Tron founder Justin Sun and the Trump-linked crypto project The situation escalated on Wednesday after Sun sharply criticized a new governance proposal, calling it “one of the most absurd governance scams” he has ever seen.
In a lengthy post on
He also claimed that he and other large holders had been excluded from the process, claiming that tokens linked to approximately 4% of the voting power under their control had been frozen.
More broadly, Sun questioned whether voting has any real authority, stating that control over the protocol resides in anonymous wallet addresses, including a multi-signature setup that can override results and a separate account with the power to blacklist users.
“This proposal is not governance,” Sun said in the post. “It is an exercise of power by a select few who are carefully engineering a further consolidation of power and property expropriation operation.”
WLFI Proposal
The criticism centers on WLFI’s new proposal that would overhaul token lockups across the ecosystem. More than 62 billion WLFI tokens would be subject to new terms, including multi-year lock-ups and vesting schedules.
Under the plan, tokens held by insiders such as team members, advisors and partners would face a two-year lock-up followed by a three-year gradual release, along with a 10% token burn upon opt-in. Early supporters would face slightly shorter vesting terms, but would not burn. In total, up to 4.5 billion tokens could be permanently destroyed.
Holders who do not accept the new terms would remain blocked indefinitely, according to the proposal.
Sun wasn’t the only one who responded. Simon Dedic, founder of Moonrock Capital, said early investors had indeed been “rugged”.
“All the early $WLFI investors who thought they were making solid profits were simply turned hard by the Trump family themselves,” Dedic wrote on X, adding that the move seemed to give the project another chance to extract value from investors. He also criticized what he described as “blatant misconduct” with little effort to conceal it.
A World Liberty Financial spokesperson told CoinDesk that the proposal “was designed to further align all participants in the WLFI ecosystem over the long term,” adding that it aims to “optimally ensure long-term participation in our ecosystem and help ensure healthy market supply.”
Growing dispute
The reaction marks the latest episode in the breakdown of relations between Sun and the project.
Earlier this week, WLFI threatened legal action, saying it had “contracts” and “proof” after Sun accused the team of exploiting users through DeFi transactions.
The dispute has been brewing for months. In September, WLFI blacklisted a Sun-linked blockchain address that at the time held around $107 million in its governance tokens. This marks a sharp shift from late 2024, when Sun was a key backer, investing $30 million in WLFI tokens and taking on an advisory role to help support the project.
Tensions escalated after WLFI deposited 5 billion of its own tokens into the Dolomite lending protocol – where one of its advisors is a co-founder – and borrowed approximately $75 million in stablecoins. The tokens fell 12% to an all-time low the next day, after which Sun publicly accused the project of treating users like “personal ATMs,” triggering the latest legal threats.
