When I visited the Free Republic of Liberland in April 2023, on its eighth anniversary, there was little to indicate that the tiny proto-nation—which had no permanent residents, barely any buildings, and a tendency to flood—was on track to fulfill its goal of becoming “the freest country on the planet.” But these days, Liberland has friends in high places.
Liberland was founded in 2015 by Vít Jedlička, a euro-skeptic politician from Czechia who had come to view European democracies as blighted by stringent regulation and overtaxation. In search of somewhere to start afresh, Jedlička came across a rare plot of land that seemed to belong to no country—a terra nullius, or no-man’s-land.
A border disagreement between Serbia and Croatia—a carryover from the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s—has created pockets of land west of the Danube that neither nation claims. On the largest plot, Jedlička planted a flag.
The Croatian government has since repeatedly blocked Liberland’s attempts to settle the territory, which it treats as disputed land. Jedlička, who serves as Liberland’s president, has been arrested by Croatian border police on multiple occasions. During my 2023 visit, I found myself participating in a slow-motion police chase while sailing down the Danube toward the territory; Croatian officers tailed our boat for almost its entire two-hour journey from Serbia, and patrolmen waited to intercept anybody who might try to make landfall.
“It is a fictitious project of a handful of adventurers,” the Croatian government has previously said of Liberland.
Two years later, the Liberland government thinks it may be nearing a breakthrough. With Chinese cryptocurrency billionaire Justin Sun as its new prime minister, Liberland is aiming to make strides in international diplomacy—particularly in the US—and finally settle the land it claims to own.
“We are taken more seriously when we have a person like Justin Sun on board,” claims Jedlička. “People understand that we are capable to actually uplift the whole region.”
The White House, the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, and Justin Sun did not respond to requests for comment.
Over the years, Liberland has been funded in large part by wealthy crypto donors, attracted by the prospect of a state built around the same libertarian principles on which crypto was founded. Liberland has itself released two crypto coins—one as a medium of exchange and the other for voting in elections—and developed its own national blockchain.
Sun was first elected as prime minister of Liberland in October. Since then, he has been reelected on a further three occasions, in votes held quarterly.
“Just as Vatican City represents a central spiritual authority for Catholics, Liberland will be the heart of the libertarian movement,” Sun wrote on X after he was first elected. “Libertarians everywhere may have their own countries and nationalities, but Liberland will serve as their ideological homeland.”
For Liberland, Sun could prove to be an immensely useful political ally.
Since US president Donald Trump won reelection in November, Sun has forged a close relationship with the Trump family. He has struck up a business partnership and assumed an adviser role at World Liberty Financial, a crypto business cofounded by the Trumps, and invested tens of millions of dollars in crypto coins tied to the Trump family.
In February, the US Securities and Exchange Commission requested a pause on an ongoing lawsuit against Sun, whom the agency had charged with market manipulation. In May, Sun’s investments earned him a seat at an exclusive gala dinner held at the Trump National Golf Club near Washington, DC, attended by Trump himself. The following month, in a post on X, Eric Trump referred to Sun as a “great friend.”
Sun has heavily implied that he intends to use his relationship with the Trump family to advance the interests of Liberland as it attempts to secure formal recognition by sovereign states.
“As you know, I personally invest $30 million into the Trump crypto project World Liberty Financial,” Sun said in January, as he outlined plans for a second term as Liberland prime minister. (Sun would later claim to have invested an additional $45 million in WLFI.) “In this new administration, we have lots of allies, from the new envoy to the Middle East [Steve Witkoff] and also the new minister of commerce [Howard Lutnick] and other ministers in office.”
Because many countries follow the lead of the United States, Sun reasoned, Liberland stood to achieve a “big breakthrough in diplomatic relationships” if it could ingratiate itself with the Trump administration.
“This is a very precious opportunity for Liberland in 2025, to have a good relationship with the current US government,” said Sun. “I think President Trump is a bold man. He also likes to do unprecedented moves.”
Though generally tight-lipped, Jedlička has insinuated that Sun is making inroads at the White House on behalf of Liberland.
“He spent quite a few days in the White House. I cannot really tell you the details of these things. It’s all too hot,” claims Jedlička. “In general, his task is to help us get Liberland recognized and up and running. I’m happy he is not taking it lightly.”
The Croatian authorities have evicted settlers from Liberland more than 25 times in the two years since I visited, Jedlička estimates. In the winter of 2023, a swelling of the Danube flooded the whole of Liberland, forcing settlers into house boats.
The territory remains almost completely undeveloped and unoccupied: a blank parcel of forestland with a small island at its edge, framed by a sandy beach that picks up driftwood from the river.
But since this spring, Jedlička claims, fortunes have improved, and Liberland settlers have been left alone for long enough to build a few makeshift structures.
In July, Jedlička’s office published a press release celebrating the opening of a beach bar and treehouse in Liberland. On Monday, Liberland will host the afterparty for its national chess tournament.
“People never left Liberland. They always lived there in some shape or form, but not in the best conditions—mostly kind of camping,” claims Jedlička. “But the last four months are very good. I have to give [Croatia] credit.”
Last week, I observed a meeting of the Liberland cabinet, which takes place every Monday over video conference. Sun typically joins, Jedlička claims, but this being summer only a handful of officials—the secretaries of finance and technology, the vice president, and the president—were in attendance.
The meeting was led in large part by Dorian Štern-Vukotić, a wild-haired Croatian who developed Liberland’s crypto voting system and now serves as secretary of technology. Štern-Vukotić lived for a period in Liberland, where he met his girlfriend, he claims. “Now we have a kid who was also kinda made in Liberland,” he wrote in a recent pitch for reelection. Two years earlier, Štern-Vukotić had asked to sleep in my hotel room in a Serbian town where Liberland has an outpost, having forgotten to book a room for the anniversary weekend. (I politely declined.)
Items for discussion at the meeting included the status of Liberland’s blockchain development, plans to erect a monument on Liberland, and ongoing settlement efforts. The digressive and informal quality of the meeting created some obstacles: “Again, we need to handle this professionally. Whose task is this?” Štern-Vukotić was at one point forced to clarify.
When the group began to discuss the Liberland Space Program, my ears perked up. After Justin Sun rocketed into sub-orbit aboard a Blue Origin spacecraft in early August—“He’s the first prime minister ever to fly to space,” says Jedlička, proudly— Liberland is planning to deposit its flag on an asteroid. The government claims to have entered negotiations with LifeShip, a company aiming to deliver a payload to an asteroid in early 2026.
Initially, there was some debate over what the stunt would achieve. But the dissonance between Liberland’s problems in settling its earthly territory and its lofty space ambitions doesn't trouble Jedlička, who sees myth-building as an important part of legitimizing the micronation.
“While we only have 12 settlers in Liberland, I think it’s kind of a significant achievement,” he said. “We are already in space much more than the average country on planet Earth.”
With Justin Sun on its side, Liberland has hopes for terrestrial recognition as well.
Earlier this month, Liberland was an “official partner” at the 90th birthday party of former US congressman Ron Paul, who has previously spoken favorably of the micronation. The event was attended by Liberland’s minister of foreign affairs and Washington, DC, envoy, as well as various politicians, including Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence. Two days later, the Liberland delegation visited Paul, awarding him a First Class Order of Merit, the country’s highest honor.
“The relations in the United States in general are really strong,” claims Jedlička. “We are having a lot of good contacts with the current administration—let’s call it that.”
