At the Consensus Miami 2026 conference on Thursday, Donald Trump Jr. and Zach Witkoff jointly took the stage to support World Liberty Financial, the Trump-backed decentralized finance project. This marks their first public appearance together at a major crypto event, and it comes as the project faces its toughest legal battle since its late 2024 launch.
In late April, Tron founder Justin Sun filed a federal lawsuit in California, alleging that World Liberty froze his tokens, removed his voting rights, and threatened to permanently burn his holdings. Witkoff dismissed the claims as “entirely meritless,” calling the suit a “desperate attempt to deflect attention” from Sun’s own alleged actions.
The Consensus platform provides World Liberty Financial a chance to reshape its narrative in front of over 20,000 attendees. Beyond the Sun lawsuit, the project has faced other controversies. Earlier this year, a Wall Street Journal report revealed that an Abu Dhabi-linked entity acquired a 49% stake for $500 million just days before Trump’s inauguration. Senator Elizabeth Warren subsequently urged the OCC to halt review of WLFI’s bank charter application, citing potential conflicts of interest.
World Liberty Financial has launched its USD1 stablecoin across multiple chains and introduced a tokenized real estate product in February tied to a Trump resort in the Maldives. As of now, WLFI trades at around $0.08, more than 75% below its peak in September 2025.