Eric Trump has publicly dismissed a federal fraud lawsuit filed by Tron founder Justin Sun against World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the Trump family-backed DeFi project. In a post on X on April 22, 2026, the WLFI co-founder mocked Sun’s credibility by referencing the $6.24 million banana duct-taped to a wall that the billionaire famously purchased in 2024.
Trump and Witkoff hit back on X
Eric Trump wrote: “The only thing more ridiculous than this lawsuit is spending $6 million on a banana duct-taped to a wall. We are incredibly proud of the @worldlibertyfi team.”
The post was a direct swipe at Sun’s November 2024 purchase of “Comedian,” a 2019 conceptual artwork by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan consisting of a fresh banana duct-taped to a wall with silver tape. Sun bought the piece at a Sotheby’s auction for $6.24 million and ate the banana shortly after.
WLFI co-founder and CEO Zach Witkoff also responded on X, calling the lawsuit “a desperate attempt to deflect attention from Sun’s own misconduct” and describing the claims as “entirely meritless.” Witkoff said World Liberty Financial expects the case to be thrown out promptly.
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What Sun is alleging in court
Sun filed the complaint on April 21, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, through himself and his two British Virgin Islands companies, Blue Anthem Limited and Black Anthem Limited. He is suing for breach of contract, fraud, conversion, and unjust enrichment, and is asking the court to unfreeze his tokens, award damages, and bar WLFI from destroying his holdings.
At the center of the lawsuit is an allegation that WLFI secretly embedded a backdoor blacklisting function in its token smart contract in 2025, giving company insiders the ability to freeze any investor’s tokens without notice, without a governance vote, and without any stated reason.
Sun called it “a trap door marketed as an open door.” The complaint also accuses WLFI co-founder Chase Herro of threatening to burn Sun’s tokens unless Sun publicly requested the burn, and of threatening to report Sun to U.S. authorities over alleged KYC issues to pressure him into minting $200 million worth of WLFI’s USD1 stablecoin on the Tron blockchain.
A $75M investment that turned into a legal battle
Sun first backed World Liberty Financial in late 2024 with a $30 million investment, later growing his total stake to approximately $75 million and taking on an advisory role. WLFI credited Sun publicly with rescuing the project from a slow start, the platform raised just $22 million in its first month before Sun’s entry sparked a broader capital wave that pushed total fundraising to roughly $550 million.
The breakdown began in September 2025. When WLFI tokens became tradable at $0.25, Sun moved approximately $9 million worth to external wallets, describing them as routine test transfers. WLFI flagged the transactions and activated the blacklist function, freezing 595 million of Sun’s unlocked tokens and 2.4 billion in vesting tokens.
The frozen position was worth over $100 million at the time. WLFI maintained the freeze was a routine security measure, not a targeted action against Sun. Since then, WLFI has dropped more than 83% to around $0.08, reducing the estimated value of Sun’s locked holdings to approximately $75 million.
Governance freeze and a broader DeFi credibility question
Sun’s lawsuit also targets a governance proposal WLFI published on April 15, 2026, which would impose new vesting schedules and a mandatory 10% burn on advisor tokens for holders who opt in.
Holders who refuse the new terms face indefinite token lock-ups. Because Sun’s tokens were frozen in September 2025, he cannot vote on the proposal at all, effectively silencing the project’s largest early backer at a critical governance moment.
The legal action lands against a backdrop of wider scrutiny facing WLFI. A recent investigation revealed the project pledged five billion of its own tokens as collateral on Dolomite, a lending platform co-founded by WLFI’s own chief technology officer, to borrow roughly $75 million in stablecoins.
The move temporarily locked out ordinary depositors on the platform and raised new questions about whether WLFI’s claims of decentralization hold up in practice.
Sun separates Trump from the dispute as case heads to court
Sun was deliberate in framing the lawsuit as targeting individuals within WLFI’s team rather than President Trump or his administration.
He wrote on X that he remains “an ardent supporter of President Trump” and added: “I do not believe President Trump would condone these actions if he knew about them.”
Sun had also settled separate SEC fraud charges in March 2026, paying a $10 million fine with no admission of wrongdoing. The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Portions of the WLFI lawsuit remain under seal.
