{"id":19625,"date":"2024-11-29T13:27:47","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T13:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19625"},"modified":"2024-11-29T13:27:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T13:27:47","slug":"crypto-entrepreneur-eats-banana-artwork-bought-for-6-2m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19625","title":{"rendered":"Crypto entrepreneur eats banana artwork bought for $6.2m"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“It’s much better than other bananas,” Justin Sun said<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur has followed through on his promise to eat the banana from a $6.2m (\u00a34.9m) artwork he bought last week<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Justin Sun outbid six others to claim Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous 2019 work Comedian – a banana duct-taped to a wall – at Sotheby’s auction house in New York. <\/p>\n

He ate the fruit during a news conference in Hong Kong where he used the moment to draw parallels between the artwork and cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

The banana is regularly replaced before exhibitions, with Mr Sun buying the right to display the installation along with a guide on how to replace the fruit. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It has been eaten twice before – first by a performance artist in 2019<\/a> and again by a South Korean student in 2023<\/a> – but neither paid any money to do so, let alone $6.2m. <\/p>\n

“Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history,” Mr Sun said. <\/p>\n

“It’s much better than other bananas,” he added. <\/p>\n

The 34-year-old said he was intrigued by the work, admitting he had “dumb questions” about whether the banana rotted. <\/p>\n

The New York Times reported a fresh banana was bought for 35 cents on the day of last week’s auction, before becoming possibly one of the most expensive fruits in the world. <\/p>\n

Each attendee at the event on Friday was given a banana and a roll of duct tape as a souvenir. <\/p>\n

“Everyone has a banana to eat,” Mr Sun said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mr Sun runs a blockchain service where users can trade in cryptocurrency.<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Mr Sun runs the Tron blockchain network – a service where users can trade in cryptocurrency. <\/p>\n

Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies<\/a> that operate independent of banks, offering the potential of very secure decentralised transactions. <\/p>\n

Mr Sun compared the artwork, and other abstract pieces like it, to NFTs. <\/p>\n

These “non-fungible tokens” are pieces of digital artwork that have no intrinsic value, other than that prescribed by people. <\/p>\n

NFTs can be traded on platforms like Mr Sun’s. <\/p>\n

Last year, he was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for offering and selling unregistered security tokens. Mr Sun denies the charges and the case is ongoing. <\/p>\n

This week, Mr Sun disclosed he made a $30m investment in a crypto project backed by US President-elect Donald Trump. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: <\/em> www.bbc.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getty Images “It’s much better than other bananas,” Justin Sun said A Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur has followed through on his promise to eat the banana from a $6.2m (\u00a34.9m) artwork he bought last week. Justin Sun outbid six others to claim Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous 2019 work Comedian – a banana duct-taped to a wall – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}