Trump’s crypto project World Liberty Financial is under fire after releasing a governance proposal that would lock early investors’ tokens for years — or indefinitely if they refuse the new terms.
The proposal, posted to WLFI’s governance forum on Wednesday, would place more than 62 billion WLFI tokens under new lockup rules. Team members, advisers, and partners would face a two-year lockup followed by a three-year gradual release. Early supporters get slightly shorter vesting terms but still face multi-year delays before accessing their tokens.
Holders who reject the new terms would have their tokens locked indefinitely, with no clear path to access them.
Up to 4.5 billion tokens could also be permanently burned under the plan, with insiders facing a 10% token burn on opting in.
The proposal drew sharp criticism from Justin Sun, the Tron founder and one of WLFI’s biggest investors. Sun called the plan “one of the most absurd governance scams I have ever seen” in a post on X.
This Is World Tyranny, Not World Liberty Financial — Here's Why
This proposal has been packaged as a "governance alignment signal" and a "long-term commitment," but strip away the packaging and what you have is one of the most absurd governance scams I have ever seen. Let me… https://t.co/sJhFMnLWsJ
— H.E. Justin Sun
(@justinsuntron) April 15, 2026
Sun says he holds roughly a 4% stake in World Liberty, but his tokens are currently frozen. He claims this has shut him out of the voting process entirely.
He also raised concerns about who actually controls the protocol. Sun said anonymous wallet addresses — including a multisignature wallet that can override votes and a separate account that can blacklist users — hold real power over outcomes.
“This proposal is not governance,” Sun wrote. “It is an exercise of power by the selected few.”
Sun was not alone in pushing back. Simon Dedic, founder of Moonrock Capital, said early investors had been “rugged” by the Trump family.
Dedic wrote on X that the move appeared to give the project “another shot at squeezing the same lemon,” and lined up with the remaining time in Donald Trump’s presidential term.
He also criticised what he called “blatant misconduct” with little effort to hide it.
The dispute between Sun and WLFI goes back to September, when the project blacklisted a blockchain address linked to Sun that held roughly $107 million in governance tokens.
This was a sharp reversal from late 2024, when Sun invested $30 million in WLFI and took on an advisory role.
Tensions rose further after WLFI deposited 5 billion of its own tokens into lending protocol Dolomite — co-founded by one of its advisers — and borrowed around $75 million in stablecoins. The token fell 12% to a record low the following day.
Sun publicly accused the project of treating users as “personal ATMs.” WLFI responded with threats of legal action.
A WLFI spokesperson told CoinDesk the proposal “aims to optimally ensure long-term participation in our ecosystem and help ensure healthy market supply.”
Voting on the proposal is set to begin soon and will run for one week. The WLFI token is currently trading at around 8 cents, down more than 40% this year and over 75% from its all-time high of 33 cents.
The post The Feud Between Justin Sun and World Liberty Financial Just Got a Lot Bigger appeared first on CoinCentral.
