30s Summary

Tron founder Justin Sun has spent $6.2 million on an artwork known as “Comedian” by Maurizio Cattelan, which is essentially a banana taped to a wall. Sun can replace the banana and intends to eat it. The artwork was auctioned off at Sotheby’s after a six-minute bidding war. This comes as Sun’s company, which manages large proportions of transactions for Tether (USDT), is under investigation by the US Justice Department, and Sun may also face legal challenges from the FBI, New York prosecutors, and the SEC.

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Justin Sun, the guy who started Tron, shelled out a whopping $6.2 million for a piece of art at a New York auction. And guess what the artwork is? Just a banana taped to a wall! And yes, he’s going to eat it.

He posted on social media that he bought the banana, not just as a piece of art, but as a symbol of a cultural trend that spans the art world, internet memes and the crypto crowd. He said he’s going to have a bite of banana soon, which he reckons is all part of the crazy cool art experience.

So, you might be thinking what’s so special about a banana taped to a wall? Well, it’s an artwork called “Comedian” by an artist named Maurizio Cattelan. But here’s the juicy part: as the owner, Sun can replace the banana and the tape whenever he likes. So technically, he paid millions for instructions on how to stick a banana to a wall and a certificate that lets him call it “Comedian”.

There was a wild six minute bidding war for the artwork during its first-ever auction at Sotheby’s. The starting bid was $800,000, but the price quickly zoomed up to over $5 million. Sun ended up outbidding six others and had to fork out an extra $1 million in auction fees.

With all the excitement and stress going on in his life, Sun could probably use the energy from the banana. His company, Tron, manages the bulk of transactions for Tether (USDT), the world’s biggest stablecoin, which is reportedly under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. Sun himself has also been reported to be under investigation by the FBI and New York prosecutors, and has also had to contend with a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

If Sun really does eat the art banana, he’s not the first one to do so. Another dude chowed down on the banana when it was in a Seoul art museum because he missed breakfast and was hungry. Before that, an artist named David Datuna munched the original banana after it was sold for $120,000 in 2019, but there were no legal repercussions and the banana was simply replaced.