Etherscan data shows that a wallet containing Justin Sun’s substantial WLFI holdings was blacklisted by the Trump-linked DeFi project.
World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform promoted by the Trump family, has apparently blacklisted an address associated with TRON founder Justin Sun holding over 500 million WLFI tokens, shortly after reports surfaced that he had transferred some tokens to the HTX crypto exchange, despite prior pledges not to sell any unlocked tokens.
The move comes as WLFI’s price tumbled roughly 20% to around $0.17 from its debut highs just two days after launching on crypto exchanges, hitting an all-time low. The token currently trades at an $18 billion fully diluted valuation (FDV).
According to an on-chain transaction seen by The Defiant, the WLFI smart contract recorded a “blacklist” event pointed at an address 0x5A…DA74, which blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence attributes to Justin Sun.
The transaction logs indicate that at least 500 million unlocked WLFI tokens were flagged, although it remains unclear whether this will fully prevent transfers or merely signal the team’s intent to ban the address.
The blacklisting comes shortly after on-chain analysts flagged WLFI transfers from Justin Sun’s address to HTX, a crypto exchange he is affiliated with, including about $1 million in WLFI just days after Sun had pledged not to sell unlocked tokens. It remains unclear whether Sun actually sold those tokens or merely moved them to participate in HTX’s yield program, which was offering 20% APY for WLFI stakers.
Shortly after announcing the staking program, Sun addressed HTX’s high-yield WLFI program on social media, describing the 20% APY as “100% subsidized by the platform” and framing it as part of competitive customer acquisition rather than an immediate liquidation of holdings, though he didn’t explain where the yield comes from.
Some speculate that through the program, Sun could have used HTX users’ WLFI tokens to support sales from his own allocation, potentially enabling him to exit part of his pre-sale holdings.
As of press time, neither Justin Sun nor World Liberty Financial have commented publicly on the matter, and did not immediately respond to The Defiant’s requests for comment.
