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Tron founder Justin Sun blasts Trump-linked WLFI vote, escalating feud over governance

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WLFI threatens Justin Sun after he accuses project of deceptive DeFi dealings

A public dispute between Tron founder Justin Sun and Trump-linked crypto project escalated Wednesday after Sun sharply criticized a new governance proposal, calling it “one of the most absurd governance scams” he has seen.

In a lengthy post on X, Sun accused the project of designing a vote that punishes dissent, with token holders who vote against the proposal risking having their tokens locked indefinitely.

He also claimed he and other large holders had been excluded from the process, alleging that tokens tied to roughly 4% of voting power under his control had been frozen.

More broadly, Sun questioned whether the vote has any real authority, claiming control over the protocol sits with anonymous wallet addresses, including a multisignature setup that can override outcomes and a separate account with the power to blacklist users.

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“This proposal is not governance,” Sun said in the post. “It is an exercise of power by the selected few who are carefully engineering a further power consolidation and property expropriation operation.”

WLFI proposal

The criticism centers on WLFI’s new proposal that would overhaul token lockups across the ecosystem. More than 62 billion WLFI tokens would be subject to new terms, including 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 gradual release, alongside a 10% token burn upon opting in. Early supporters would face slightly shorter vesting terms but no burn. In total, up to 4.5 billion tokens could be permanently destroyed.

Holders who do not accept the new terms would remain locked indefinitely, per the proposal.

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Sun was not alone in pushing back. Simon Dedic, founder of Moonrock Capital, said early investors had effectively been “rugged.”

“All the $WLFI early investors who thought they were sitting on solid profits just got rugged, by the Trump family themselves,” Dedic wrote on X, adding that the move appeared to give the project another chance to extract value from investors. He also criticized what he described as “blatant misconduct” with little effort to conceal it.

A World Liberty Financial spokesperson told CoinDesk that the proposal “was designed to further align all the participants in the WLFI ecosystem for the long-run,” adding that it aims to “optimally ensure long-term participation in our ecosystem and help ensure healthy market supply.”

Escalating feud

The backlash marks the latest episode in the breakdown in relations between Sun and the project.

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Earlier this week, WLFI threatened legal action, saying it had “contracts” and “evidence” after Sun accused the team of exploiting users through DeFi transactions.

The dispute has been building for months. In September, WLFI blacklisted a blockchain address linked to Sun that held about $107 million worth of its governance tokens at the time. That marks a sharp reversal from late 2024, when Sun was a key backer, investing $30 million in WLFI tokens and taking on an advisory role to help support the project.

Tensions intensified after WLFI deposited 5 billion of its own tokens into lending protocol Dolomite — where one of its advisers is a co-founder — and borrowed roughly $75 million in stablecoins. The tokens fell 12% to a record low the next day, after which Sun publicly accused the project of treating users as “personal ATMs,” triggering the latest legal threats.

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Crypto World

ETH Futures Open Interest Rises As Institutional Investors Return

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ETH Futures Open Interest Rises As Institutional Investors Return

Key takeaways:

  • Institutional ETH accumulation remains robust as Ether ETFs and Bitmine Immersion lead a healthy, spot-driven recovery.

  • Lackluster DApp revenue and negative ETH funding rates suggest that traders are skeptical of the rally.

Ether (ETH) price managed to sustain above $2,300 on Wednesday, distancing itself from the $1,940 lows seen on March 29. The recent rally has caused ETH futures open interest to reach $25.4 billion, indicating increased demand for leveraged positions. The movement suggests a potential turn in momentum for ETH bulls after 10 weeks of failed attempts to reclaim the $2,400 level.

ETH futures aggregate open interest, USD. Source: CoinGlass

To determine whether the shift in positioning is driven by bulls, one must assess the ETH futures funding rate. The ETH perpetual futures funding rate has failed to hold above 5% since Friday, indicating a lack of confidence among bulls. 

ETH perpetual futures annualized funding rate. Source: Laevitas

The metric has dipped below 0% multiple times, indicating excess demand for bearish leveraged positions. Under neutral conditions, the indicator should range between 5% and 10% to compensate for the cost of capital.

Still, one could argue that such data reinforces that Ether’s recent rally to $2,350 has been sustained by spot demand.

ETH spot ETF daily net flows, USD. Source: SoSoValue

US-listed Ether spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) accumulated $248 million in net inflows over the past 10 days, validating the thesis of healthy spot-driven Ether bullish momentum. In parallel, the digital asset treasury company Bitmine Immersion (BMNR US) announced the acquisition of $312 million worth of ETH. Bitmine now holds 4.87 million ETH, equivalent to $11.46 billion.

While institutional accumulation is generally a positive sign, Bitmine’s ETH holdings are trading 13% below their acquisition cost, according to CoinGecko data. Similarly, US-listed Ether ETF assets under management stood at $13.7 billion on Wednesday, down from $20.5 billion three months prior. Ether’s failure to reclaim $2,400 also happened as the S&P 500 index jumped to a new all-time high on Wednesday.

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Weak Ethereum network activity, increased competition 

Part of investors’ reduced appetite for cryptocurrencies can be pinned to the declining activity in decentralized applications (DApps). Almost every corner of the cryptocurrency industry has been negatively impacted by the 2026 bear market, including memecoin token launch platforms, synthetic derivatives trading, collateralized lending, digital collectibles, decentralized exchanges and cross chain bridges.

The few positive highlights, including prediction markets and real-world assets, had no impact on Ethereum network activity. Investors are starting to question whether ETH is well-positioned to capture an eventual surge in demand for DApps, given the emergence of competing blockchains focused on solving specific issues, such as Hyperliquid and Plasma.

Ethereum weekly DApps revenue, USD. Source: DefiLlama

Related: ETH/BTC ratio hits 10-week high as Ether outpaces Bitcoin–Are new price highs next?

Ethereum’s weekly DApps revenue has plummeted to $11 million per week, down from $24 million in early February. The primary reason for investors to accumulate ETH is the expectation of higher onchain processing demand and the subsequent burn mechanism, which creates incentives for long-term holding. 

Despite the increased demand for ETH futures, derivatives metrics failed to flip bullish. Among the potential causes are the losses in Ethereum strategic reserve companies and increased competition in the DApps industry.

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