A public spat between Tron founder Justin Sun and a Trump-linked cryptocurrency project intensified on Wednesday after Sun harshly criticized a new governance proposal, calling it “one of the most absurd governance scams I’ve ever seen.”
In a lengthy post about X, Sun accused the project of designing votes to punish dissent, and that token holders who vote against proposals risk having their tokens locked indefinitely.
He also claimed that tokens tied to about 4% of the voting power he controls were frozen, and that he and other large holders were excluded from the process.
More broadly, Sun questioned whether there was any real power in voting, claiming that control of the protocol was being exercised through 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 select few who are carefully planning further consolidation of power and expropriation operations.”
$WLFI suggestion
The center of criticism is $WLFI’s new proposal is an overhaul of token lockups across the ecosystem. Over 62 billion $WLFI The tokens will be subject to new conditions such as multi-year lockups and vesting schedules.
Under the plan, tokens held by insiders such as team members, advisors, and partners would face a two-year lockup followed by a three-year phased release, and would be subject to a 10% token burn upon opt-in. Early supporters will have a slightly shorter vesting period, but no burn will occur. In total, up to 4.5 billion tokens could be permanently destroyed.
According to the proposal, holders who do not accept the new terms will remain locked in indefinitely.
Sun was not the only one to rebel. Simon Dedic, founder of Moonrock Capital, said early investors were effectively “strong-handed”.
“All $WLFI “Early investors who thought they were content with solid returns were simply toughened by the Trump family themselves,” Dedic wrote of X, adding that the move appears to have given the project new opportunities to extract value from investors. He also made little effort to cover up what he described as “blatant misconduct”.
A spokesperson for World Liberty Financial told CoinDesk that the proposal is “aimed at further aligning all participants.” $WLFI It added that it aims to “optimally ensure long-term participation in our ecosystem and help ensure healthy market supply.”
Intensifying feud
The backlash marks the latest episode in the breakdown of Sun’s relationship with the project.
Earlier this week, $WLFI After Sun accused the team of exploiting users through DeFi transactions, the company said it had a “contract” and “evidence” and threatened legal action.
The controversy has been going on for months. In September, $WLFI It blacklisted blockchain addresses associated with Sun, which held around $107 million worth of governance tokens at the time. This marks a sharp reversal from late 2024, when Sun was a key backer and invested $30 million. $WLFI Get tokens and take on an advisory role to support the project.
After tensions rose $WLFI The company deposited 5 billion of its tokens into the lending protocol Dolomite (one of its advisors is a co-founder) and borrowed about $75 million in stablecoins. The next day, the token fell 12% to an all-time low, after which Sun publicly accused the project of treating users as “personal ATMs,” which triggered the latest legal threat.
