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Justin Sun Takes Legal Action Against World Liberty Financial Over Frozen Crypto Holdings

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Brian Armstrong's Bold Prediction: AI Agents Will Soon Dominate Global Financial

TLDR

  • Justin Sun, founder of Tron, initiated legal proceedings against World Liberty Financial in California’s federal court system
  • The lawsuit alleges WLFI improperly froze Sun’s token holdings, stripped voting privileges, and issued threats to destroy his assets
  • Sun attempted private resolution before pursuing litigation
  • A new governance measure would permanently lock tokens of holders who don’t consent to new terms
  • Sun maintains his support for President Trump’s cryptocurrency initiatives despite the legal conflict

Justin Sun, the blockchain entrepreneur behind Tron, has initiated legal proceedings against World Liberty Financial—a cryptocurrency venture supported by the Trump family—in California’s federal court.

According to Sun’s complaint, the World Liberty Financial team improperly locked his token holdings, eliminated his governance voting capabilities, and issued threats to permanently destroy his investment without providing adequate justification.

Sun maintains he pursued private negotiation channels before resorting to legal action. When the WLFI management refused to restore access to his frozen assets, he determined that litigation was his only remaining recourse.

Previously recognized as World Liberty Financial’s most significant external investor, Sun has now emerged as the project’s most outspoken detractor.

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On April 12th, Sun made public allegations that WLFI developers had secretly incorporated a blacklist mechanism within the project’s smart contract infrastructure. This hidden functionality, he asserts, grants the development team authority to freeze, limit, and essentially seize investor assets.

World Liberty Financial addressed these accusations on their social channels, dismissing them as “baseless allegations” and portraying Sun as someone “playing the victim.” The organization suggested imminent legal proceedings with the statement: “See you in court pal.”

The Governance Dispute

The situation intensified following World Liberty‘s April 15th release of a governance resolution. This measure proposes converting more than 62 billion WLFI tokens from unlimited lockup periods into predetermined vesting timelines.

The resolution establishes that founders, development personnel, and advisors would face a two-year token freeze, followed by incremental distribution across three additional years. Additionally, a 10% token destruction would occur upon proposal approval.

Investors declining to accept these revised conditions would see their holdings locked permanently under the current framework.

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Sun characterized the resolution as “one of the most absurd governance scams” he’s encountered. He contends it masquerades as a governance initiative while actually functioning as an investor trap for those who don’t actively participate.

Due to his frozen token status, Sun reports he’s completely unable to participate in the voting process—neither in support nor opposition.

Sun Still Backs Trump Despite Legal Fight

Sun emphasized through his public statements that this legal action doesn’t represent opposition to President Trump or his administration’s initiatives.

“Unfortunately, certain individuals on the World Liberty project team have been operating the project in a manner that goes against President Trump’s values,” Sun wrote.

Sun reportedly ranks among the top holders of the TRUMP memecoin. This substantial investment secured him access to an exclusive cryptocurrency gala dinner in May 2025, where he received a commemorative watch during the event.

Analytical data from CoinCarp reveals 642,882 holders of the TRUMP memecoin currently exist. More than 91% of total supply concentration resides within the top 10 wallet addresses.

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World Liberty Financial has not issued any official statement regarding the lawsuit when approached by journalists.

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LayerZero among bridges Lazarus using to launder loot

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LayerZero among bridges Lazarus using to launder loot

Laundering of the proceeds from Saturday’s $290 million rsETH hack is well and truly underway, and state-sponsored North Korean hacking collective Lazarus Group is suspected to be behind the theft, given the commingling of funds with other TraderTraitor-related hacks, BTC Turk and ByBit.

As with previous incidents, the culprits have taken to funneling vast volumes through blockchain bridges. The tools used so far even include LayerZero, the bridging protocol from which the $290 million rsETH were originally stolen.

Read more: DeFi sector in $14B meltdown as $290M rsETH hack fallout burns Aave

The efforts began shortly after Arbitrum’s Security Council rescued over 30,000 ether (ETH), slashing the hackers’ realized profit from $245 million to around $175 million.

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One on-chain analyst, who goes by “Specter,” claims to have tracked over 1,600 transactions via 370 addresses in the first 12 hours of laundering. That’s an average of one transaction every 25 seconds.

As of Wednesday morning, they tallied $116 million as having been laundered to bitcoin (BTC), with another wallet currently holding $61 million still to go.

Read more: DeFi plays the blame game

Mixed reactions

The projects behind the bridges themselves have responded differently to the ill-gotten gains flowing through their tech.

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Privacy protocol Umbra acknowledged that $800,000 worth of ETH had passed through its system. While the project underlined its inability to stop illicit use of its autonomous smart contracts, it did put its own hosted front end into “maintenance mode.”

THORChain, as usual, washed its hands of responsibility, with varying degrees of diplomacy.

Read more: Vultisig founder says DPRK-linked Bybit transactions are ‘legitimate’

Specter estimates that 99% of the laundered funds flowed through THORChain, whose dashboard shows over $100,000 of affiliate fees earned on Tuesday.

While THORChain’s bridging infrastructure is decentralized across a network of 95 active nodes, affiliate fees come from use of its front end. Blockchain investigator Tanuki42 puts the recent fees at more than double year-to-date revenue.

In attempting to defend THORChain’s inability to prevent illicit use, founder JP let slip that the protocol held an admin key for many years.

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Read more: DeFi karma: Garden hacked for $11M after bridging Lazarus’ loot

No let up 

The DeFi sector has faced two catastrophic hacks so far this month, with combined losses of well over half a billion dollars.

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On top of this, a slew of smaller incidents also continue to batter community morale.

While DeFi users and developers alike are still reeling from the fallout of Saturday’s incident, just last night a further $3.5 million was lost.

Read more: Inside the $280M Drift hack: weeks of setup, minutes to drain

Since the hack, Volo has provided two separate updates, informing users it had recovered $500,000, and then 19.6 BTC ($1.3 million).

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As if near constant multi-million dollar hacks weren’t enough to worry about, ongoing phishing campaigns continue to hook victims.

In a span of just 11 hours, four victims reportedly lost almost $600,000 to the same drainer contract.

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on XBluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Solana price forms bullish double bottom, eyes upside to over $110 on breakout

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Solana price is forming a double bottom pattern on the daily chart.

Solana price has rebounded by 6% since its Monday drop as investor confidence returns to the market. It is in the process of forming a double bottom pattern, which could position it for a significant trend reversal in the coming sessions.

Summary

  • Solana rose to $88.5 as market sentiment improved, supported by easing geopolitical tensions and rising trading volume.
  • The token is forming a double bottom pattern, with a breakout above $97.8 potentially targeting $118.
  • Liquidation data shows $20.5 million in short positions near $91, raising the likelihood of a short squeeze on further upside.

According to data from crypto.news, Solana (SOL) price rose 3% to $88.5 on Wednesday, bringing its market cap to over $50 billion. Its gains came amid its daily trading volume rising by 22% to $4.96 billion.

Solana price rose after U.S. President Donald Trump announced an extension of the Iran ceasefire, easing broader macro fears and leading to a relief rally across the entire crypto sector.

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The token has also benefited from institutional players doubling down on the token. Notably, Goldman Sachs recently disclosed that it holds $108 million in spot Solana ETFs. At the same time, assets in Solana spot ETFs, including those from Bitwise and Fidelity, have now surpassed $1 billion.

Solana is now in the process of completing a double bottom pattern on the daily, a setup that typically signals a bullish reversal on breakout from the neckline of the pattern. For Solana price, the neckline stands at $97.8, just 10% above the current price.

Solana price is forming a double bottom pattern on the daily chart.
Solana price is forming a double bottom pattern on the daily chart — April 22 | Source: crypto.news

A decisive breakout could position the token for an upside to $118 with no more major resistance levels on the way. The target is calculated by adding the height of the double bottom formed to the point at which the breakout occurs.

Meanwhile, the Solana weekly liquidation heat map shows a large cluster of dense liquidity at $91, where more than $20.5 million in short positions are currently sitting. If the price reaches this level, it could trigger a short squeeze that accelerates the move toward the neckline.

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Coinbase Shifts NY Prediction Markets Case to Federal Court

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Coinbase Shifts NY Prediction Markets Case to Federal Court

Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, said Wednesday that the company had removed New York Attorney General Letitia James’ prediction markets lawsuit from state court to federal court, arguing that the case turns on disputed questions of federal law over how event contracts are regulated.

The move escalates a legal fight that could help define whether prediction markets fall under federal commodities regulation and the scope of the US Commodities and Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) or state gambling laws, with broader implications for the oversight of platforms like Coinbase and Gemini.

“We have removed this action to federal court,” wrote Grewal in a Wednesday X post, adding that New York’s claims raise “disputed and substantial questions of federal law” and are subject to “complete preemption.”

It comes in response to a Tuesday lawsuit filed by New York’s Attorney General Letitia James against Coinbase Financial Markets and Gemini Titan, alleging their prediction market offerings violate New York gambling law by allowing users to bet on sports, entertainment and elections without a state gaming license, including users between 18 and 20 years old.

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Related: Kalshi, Polymarket face trading halt in Nevada after court rulings

The lawsuit seeks fines, forfeiture of alleged illegal profits and restitution for customers, while also asking the court to stop the companies from offering similar products in New York without complying with state law.

Cointelegraph has approached Coinbase for comment on the matter and a copy of the court filing.

Notice of Removal. Source: Paul Grewal

State regulators battle for prediction markets jurisdiction

State regulators have stepped up pressure on prediction market platforms in recent months, with 11 states having pursued legal action against them, seeking to assert control over federal regulators.

Coinbase’s Grewal said in a Tuesday X post that prediction markets are “federally regulated national exchanges” under the CFTC and the company will continue to “fight for the federal oversight of these markets that Congress intended.”

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Coinbase launched prediction markets across 50 US states, including New York, on Jan. 28, offering trades on “any real-world outcomes” across sports, politics, culture and more.

The New York Attorney General’s lawsuit is the latest sign that state regulators are seeking to assert their jurisdiction over emerging prediction markets, contradicting the CFTC’s stance, which said it has exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets registered as designated contract markets, such as Polymarket and Kalshi. 

On April 2, the CFTC filed three separate lawsuits against the gaming regulators of Illinois, Connecticut and Arizona, arguing that those states could not apply their gambling laws and licensing requirements to event contracts listed on CFTC-regulated platforms.

On April 8, the CFTC and US Department of Justice (DoJ) asked a federal court to block Arizona from enforcing state gambling law against Kalshi’s event contracts, arguing that they fall under the CFTC’s exclusive authority.

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