Nov. 30 (UPI) — Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun ate the banana that was part of the $6.2 million artwork that he bought during a Sotheby’s auction earlier this month in New York City.
Sun, 34, ate the banana that was duct-taped to a wall as part of an art piece created in 2019 by Maurizio Cattelan, which he named “Comedian.”
Sun devoured the banana during a press conference Friday in Hong Kong and said, “Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history.”
He said the banana tasted “much better than other bananas.”
Sun earlier in November outbid several others to claim the right to display the artwork, which requires a new banana and has instructions for displaying it correctly before art exhibitions.
The banana regularly is replaced with a fresh one, and Sun provided press conference attendees with a fresh banana and a roll of duct tape as an event souvenir.
Sun operates the Tron Foundation blockchain that enables cryptocurrency trades and said the banana artwork is similar to an NFT because its value is from people’s perceived value instead of an intrinsic value.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2023 filed charges accusing Sun and three of his companies of fraud. The three companies are Tron Foundation Ltd., Rainberry LLC and BitTorrent Foundation Ltd.
The SEC’s fraud charges accuse Sun and his wholly owned companies of fraudulently manipulating the secondary markets for crypto asset securities Tronix and BitTorrent, which the SEC says are unregistered asset securities that commonly are traded as TRX and BTT, respectively.
The SEC says Sun and his companies engaged in “extensive wash trading, which involves the simultaneous or near-simultaneous purchase and sale of a security to make it appear actively traded without an actual change in beneficial ownership.”
The SEC also said Sun and his companies orchestrated a “scheme to pay celebrities to tout TRX and BTT without disclosing their compensation.”
The SEC also charged eight celebrities with violations for allegedly “illegally touting TRX and/or BTT without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so and the amount of their compensation.”
All but two agreed to settle the matter without admitting or denying guilt by paying a collective penalty of $400,000.
The celebrities who settled the matter are actress Lindsay Lohan; social media personality Jake Paul; adult actress Michele Mason, aka Kendra Lust; and musicians Miles Parks McCollum, aka Lil Yachty; Shaffer Smith, aka Ne-Yo; and Aliaune Thiam, aka Akon.
Singer Austin Mahone in August 2023 agreed to pay a $37,525 penalty plus $7,507 in disgorgement and $682 in interest to settle the case against him.
Musician DeAndre Cortez Way, aka Soulja Boy, did not respond to the SEC’s charges while Sun continues to deny the charges against him.