The Trump family-backed crypto project World Liberty Financial is facing criticism over a proposal that would extend lock-up periods for early investors’ tokens by up to four years — or potentially indefinitely.
Shared on the platform’s governance forum on Wednesday, the plan would require early investors to keep their WLFI tokens locked for an additional two years, followed by a phased release over the next two years.
Under the proposal, tokenholders who do not agree to the revised schedule could have their tokens locked indefinitely.
The move has sparked strong backlash, including from crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun — an adviser and the platform’s largest investor — who described the plan on X as “one of the most absurd governance scams I have ever seen.”
Justin Sun, who says he holds a 4% stake in World Liberty Financial that is currently frozen, has recently stepped up his criticism of the platform. He has challenged multiple proposals and accused the project of maintaining wallet blacklisting controls — claims the company has denied.
Other critics have also voiced concern. Simon Dedic, founder of Moonrock Capital, said early WLFI investors “who thought they were sitting on solid profits just got rugged.”
“This essentially gives them another shot at squeezing the same lemon they’ve been inflating with hot air for the past two years — which, unsurprisingly, aligns with the remainder of [Donald Trump’s] term,” he added.
World Liberty Financial has not directly addressed the backlash, though spokesperson David Wachsman told Cointelegraph via email that the proposal “was designed to further align all participants in the WLFI ecosystem for the long term.”
Sun’s main objection centers on the provision to indefinitely lock tokens of those who reject the proposal, which he described as “coercion.” He also argued that he has effectively been excluded from the voting process due to his frozen tokens, adding that many other major holders face the same issue.
Wachsman said voting on the proposal is expected to begin soon and will run for one week.
Meanwhile, the WLFI token has remained flat at around $0.08 over the past 24 hours but is down more than 40% year-to-date, reflecting broader weakness across crypto and equity markets. Since reaching an all-time high of $0.33 on Sept. 1 — its first day of public trading after holders approved transferability — the token has dropped by more than 75%.
