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“It's much better than other bananas,” said Justin Sun
A Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur has kept his promise to eat the banana off a $6.2 million (£4.9 million) artwork he bought last week.
Justin Sun outbid six others to snap up Maurizio Cattelan's infamous 2019 work Comedian – a banana taped to a wall – at Sotheby's in New York.
He ate the fruit at a press conference in Hong Kong where he took the opportunity to draw parallels between the artwork and cryptocurrency.
The banana is regularly replaced before exhibitions, with Mr Sun purchasing the right to exhibit the installation along with a guide on how to replace the fruit.
It's already been eaten twice – first by a performance artist in 2019 and again by a South Korean student in 2023 – but neither paid any money to do it, much less 6.2 million dollars.
“Eating it at a press conference can also be part of the history of the artwork,” Mr. Sun said.
“It’s much better than other bananas,” he added.
The 34-year-old said he was intrigued by the work, admitting he had “stupid questions” about whether the banana had rotted.
The New York Times reported that a fresh banana was purchased for 35 cents on auction day last week, before likely becoming one of the most expensive fruits in the world.
Each participant in Friday's event received a banana and a roll of duct tape as a souvenir.
“Everyone has a banana to eat,” Mr. Sun said.
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Mr. Sun runs a blockchain service where users can trade cryptocurrencies.
Mr. Sun runs the Tron blockchain network, a service that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that operate independently of banks, offering the potential for highly secure decentralized transactions.
Mr. Sun compared the artwork and other similar abstract pieces to NFTs.
These “non-fungible tokens” are digital works of art that have no intrinsic value other than that prescribed by people.
NFTs can be traded on platforms like Mr Sun.
Last year, he was indicted by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for offering and selling unregistered security tokens. Mr. Sun denies the accusations and the case is ongoing.
This week, Mr Sun revealed he had invested $30 million in a crypto project backed by US President-elect Donald Trump.
