World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency venture co-founded by Donald Trump and his sons, has filed a defamation lawsuit in Florida against Justin Sun, a Hong Kong-based crypto billionaire who was once a key early backer of the project. The suit alleges Sun ran a "public smear campaign" against the venture, improperly transferred governance tokens to exchange Binance, and short-sold WLFI tokens in a bid to drive down their price when public trading launched in September. The legal action marks a dramatic deterioration in relations: Sun invested $45 million in the project in late 2024 and was named an adviser, but has since filed his own lawsuit claiming World Liberty illegally froze his tokens — a charge the company says was permitted under its terms of sale.