Justin Sun accuses World Liberty Financial of hidden backdoor control

Justin Sun, the founder of TRON, has accused World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a DeFi venture backed by the Trump family, of concealing a blacklist mechanism in its token contract that allows the project to freeze, control or seize user funds and undermine the principle of decentralization. Sun, who invested in WLFI during its early stages, publicly criticized the project on X as scrutiny mounted after a controversial DeFi lending move. He currently owns about 545 million WLFI tokens worth around $43 million, according to Arkham Intel. The crypto entrepreneur has long supported Trump and his crypto-friendly policies. He said his early stake in WLFI was driven by its promise to democratize finance and eliminate middlemen. In September 2025, the DeFi project froze Sun’s WLFI address, locking about 540 million tokens after transfers to exchanges sparked suspicion of token selling activity. The TRON founder said those transfers were minor tests and urged the team to reverse the decision to blacklist his wallet. He warned at the time that unilateral freezes of investor assets would undermine confidence in the ecosystem. Sun reiterated his message in today’s post. He accused the WLFI team of imposing fees, implementing hidden controls over assets, freezing funds without transparency or due process, and operating outside of fair governance frameworks. He also argued that governance votes used to justify these actions were flawed, with restricted participation, missing information and predetermined outcomes that failed to represent the broader community. Sun added that those actions were not what he signed up for. What was never disclosed to me or any investor is this: World Liberty secretly embedded a backdoor blacklist function in the smart contract deploying the WLFI token. This feature grants the company unilateral power to freeze, restrict, or even effectively confiscate the property rights of any token holder without notice, without reason, and without any avenue for recourse, Sun wrote. This is the antithesis of decentralization. It is a trap masquerading as a door. The billionaire called for token access to be restored, transparency improved and development guided by integrity. World Liberty Financial has come under pressure after reports that project-linked wallets used large amounts of WLFI in lending operations on the Dolomite DeFi lending protocol. On-chain data suggests hundreds of millions in WLFI were deployed as collateral, sparking worries that falling prices could trigger liquidations and further selling pressure on the token. In response to growing concerns, the project team said they are not at risk of liquidation, has repaid part of the loan, and plans a governance proposal to address the issue. Let’s talk about the FUD going around our WLFI Markets lending position. It’s wrong. Here’s what’s actually happening — and why the real story is a lot more interesting. — WLFI The token’s price fell sharply during the period, hitting its record low of $0.077 on April 11, according to CoinGecko. WLFI traded at $0.079 at press time, down about 76% from its all-time high of $0.3 set last September. Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.