Cryptocurrency boss eats banana artwork bought for $6.2 million

A Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur has made good on his promise to eat bananas from one The $6.2m (£4.9m) work of art he bought last week.

Justin Sun outbid six others to win Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous 2019 work The Comedian – a banana duct-taped to the wall – at Sotheby’s auction house in New York.

He ate the fruit during a press conference in Hong Kong, where he used the moment to point out the similarities between artwork and cryptocurrency.

Bananas are regularly replaced before the exhibition, Mr. Sun purchased the right to display the installation along with instructions on how to replace the banana.

It has been eaten twice before – first time by a 2019 performer and again by one Study abroad in Korea in 2023 — but neither of them paid any money to do so, let alone $6.2 million.

“Eating it at a press conference can also become part of the history of the work of art,” Mr. Sun said.

“It tastes much better than other bananas,” he added.

The 34-year-old said he enjoyed the job and admitted he had “silly questions” about whether the banana was rotten.

The New York Times reported that a fresh banana was bought for 35 cents on auction day last week, before becoming one of the most expensive fruits in the world.

Each person attending Friday’s event was given a banana and a roll of duct tape as souvenirs.

“Everyone has a banana to eat,” Mr. Sun said.

Mr Sun operates the Tron blockchain network – a service where users can transact in cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency is digital currency operates independently of banks, offering the potential for very safe decentralized transactions.

Mr. Sun compared artwork and other abstract works like it to NFTs.

These “non-fungible tokens” are digital works of art that have no intrinsic value, other than that assigned by people.

NFTs can be traded on platforms such as Mr Sun’s.

Last year, he was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with offering and selling unregistered securities tokens. Mr. Sun denied the allegations and the case is still ongoing.

This week, Mr. Sun revealed he had invested $30 million in a cryptocurrency project backed by US President-elect Donald Trump.