**Justin Sun** gained the upper hand in procedural court battles against **World Liberty Financial**, which is backed by former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Sun succeeded in keeping the key personal claims among WLFI (WLFI) claims he invested about $45 million in within federal court.
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The court denied World Liberty’s request to send the entire dispute to private arbitration, so the individual’s claim will continue to be handled in a public federal court.
This decision does not determine whether World Liberty’s actions were unlawful, and the company may attempt again to get the lawsuit dismissed at the pre-trial stage.
The case began when World Liberty froze the WLFI tokens linked to Sun after Sun emerged as a major early investor in the project.
Ruling related to Justin Sun
According to the crypto media outlet BeInCrypto, a U.S. federal court in California dismissed on Thursday, August 20 (local time) World Liberty’s bid to force all of Sun’s claims into private arbitration. As a result, Sun’s individual claims will remain in court proceedings.
The court also instructed both sides to separate and outline which parts of the claims brought by entities controlled by Sun should remain in federal court and which should be sent to arbitration. After the hearing, Sun said via X (formerly Twitter), “The judge decided that my personal claims must all be handled in an open court.”
This order does not decide whether World Liberty’s actions were unlawful, and the company can still seek dismissal of the entire lawsuit or part of it before the merits hearing. In the meantime, Sun’s individual claims will continue to be handled in open court.
Last April, Sun sued World Liberty after WLFI tokens linked to him were frozen. He claims the company set up a “private control mechanism” that can arbitrarily restrict or invalidate the tokens. World Liberty denies any wrongdoing and argues that Sun violated the agreements applicable to his stake. Sun counters that the token freeze was an action that unjustly deprived rights associated with investing.
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World Liberty stakeholders’ interests
At the WLFI initial token sale stage, Sun put $45 million in, becoming one of the largest initial sponsors. After relations between the two sides deteriorated, the current dispute has evolved into a battle over control of his held equity.
World Liberty alleges that Sun was involved in improperly moving the tokens and taking actions intended to put pressure on the WLFI price. Sun denies these allegations in full. As the case proceeds in a public federal court, the filings and evidence likely to be submitted in the future could attract stronger external scrutiny and market attention.
WLFI tokens showed high volatility throughout the litigation. Since their listing and to date, the price has fallen by nearly 80%, increasing pressure on the token’s economic viability. What began as a dispute stemming from a large initial investment has expanded into broader design issues across the project, including governance structure, token control authority, and the unlock (release) schedule.
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