OKX Fires Back at Tron’s Justin Sun Over Disputed ‘Freeze Notice’

OKX Fires Back at Tron’s Justin Sun Over Disputed ‘Freeze Notice’

Crypto exchange OKX has publicly pushed back against accusations from Tron founder Justin Sun, who alleged that the platform failed to act on a law enforcement request to freeze stolen funds following the hacking of Tron’s official X (formerly Twitter) account.

In a post on X, OKX founder and CEO Star Xu firmly rejected Sun’s claims, stating that no official freeze request had been received through any legitimate channels, including the exchange’s law enforcement (LE) cooperation email address.

“OKX also has a consumer protection policy in accordance with the law. We can’t freeze a customer’s funds based on a personal X post or oral communication,” Xu wrote. “I think you should understand this as the CEO of HTX.”

OKX: No Record of Law Enforcement Request

Xu went further to clarify that OKX’s LE team had conducted a thorough review of all correspondence, including spam folders, and found no communication or request related to the Tron incident.

“Our LE cooperation team just checked the email, including the spam box; we haven’t received any request related to this case,” Xu said.

This response came after Sun claimed — in an X post that has since been deleted but was screenshotted and shared by Xu — that OKX had ignored a freeze notice sent by a "relevant law enforcement agency." Sun insisted he had no other way to contact OKX’s compliance department.

“These stolen funds do not belong to me; I’m acting to protect the community,” Sun said, defending his public appeal.

Tron Confirms X Account Breach

On May 3, Tron DAO informed its 1.7 million followers that its X account had been compromised. During the breach, an unauthorized entity posted a malicious crypto token contract address, sent fraudulent DMs, and followed several unfamiliar accounts.

“If you received a DM from our account on May 2, please delete it and consider it the work of the attacker,” the Tron team warned.

OKX has since called on Sun to provide evidence — such as a timestamped screenshot — of the alleged law enforcement request that was supposedly sent to the exchange’s official email.

Source: Star Xu

Part of a Growing Trend of High-Profile Crypto Account Hacks

The Tron incident adds to a growing list of security breaches targeting high-profile crypto-related X accounts in recent months:

• On March 15, the account of Kaito AI, a crypto analytics platform, was hacked. The attackers manipulated the market by opening short positions on KAITO tokens before falsely claiming Kaito wallets were compromised.

• On February 26, the X account for Pump.fun was compromised to promote a fake governance token called “PUMP” and other scam coins.

• Even beyond the crypto space, on April 15, the X account of UK Member of Parliament Lucy Powell was hijacked to promote a fraudulent crypto token.

The Bigger Picture: Security and Accountability

As the frequency of social media hacks increases across the crypto sector, the debate over exchange responsibilities, legal protocols, and the handling of fund-freezing requests is becoming increasingly relevant.

OKX’s insistence on due process highlights the legal and procedural boundaries that centralized exchanges must adhere to — even in fast-moving crisis situations. Meanwhile, Sun’s public criticism underscores the tension between immediacy and process in the wake of high-stakes security breaches.

With the crypto industry continuing to grapple with these issues, the need for clear communication channels and robust verification systems between platforms, law enforcement, and project teams has never been more urgent.