World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture co-founded by Donald Trump and his sons, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Hong Kong-based crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun in Florida state court. The suit, announced on Monday, accuses Sun of launching a “public smear campaign” to damage the company’s reputation.
The lawsuit alleges that Sun improperly transferred WLFI tokens with voting rights to Binance and engaged in short selling to depress the token’s price as public trading began in September. “Justin Sun engaged in a defamatory campaign to torch World Liberty Financial’s reputation,” said CEO Zach Witkoff in a post on X.
Sun dismissed the lawsuit as a “meritless PR stunt” and said he looks forward to defeating it in court. The legal action follows Sun’s own suit in April, in which he claimed World Liberty illegally froze his tokens after they became tradable. World Liberty countered that its ability to freeze tokens was disclosed in the terms of sale.
World Liberty’s token rose about 12% after the lawsuit news but remains down 72% since its September launch. Sun’s 4 billion token stake is currently worth around $264 million. The dispute marks a sharp reversal from Sun’s early backing of the venture, when he bought $45 million in tokens and served as an adviser.
