A Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur, Justin Sun, recently followed through on his promise to consume the banana from the controversial artwork Comedian, a piece valued at $6.2 million (£4.9 million).
The artwork, created by Maurizio Cattelan in 2019, features a banana duct-taped to a wall, and Sun secured it at a Sotheby’s auction in New York after outbidding six other participants.
During a press conference in Hong Kong, Sun ate the banana, using the moment to draw connections between the artwork and the cryptocurrency world.
“Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history,” Sun remarked, emphasizing his view that this act added to the legacy of the piece. He also quipped, “It’s much better than other bananas.”
Before the auction, Sun was curious about whether the banana would rot, admitting he had “dumb questions” about it. The fresh banana that day cost just 35 cents, but it now stands as possibly one of the most expensive fruits in the world. At the event, each attendee received a banana and a roll of duct tape as a keepsake, with Sun encouraging everyone to partake, “Everyone has a banana to eat.”
Sun, who operates the Tron blockchain network—an online platform where users can trade cryptocurrencies—compared the artwork and similar abstract pieces to NFTs, non-fungible tokens, which are digital artworks assigned value by the market.
“These NFTs have no intrinsic value, other than that prescribed by people,” Sun explained.
In addition to his acquisition of Comedian, Sun revealed a $30 million investment in a cryptocurrency project tied to US President-elect Donald Trump.
In 2023, he was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for offering unregistered security tokens, a case he denies and is still ongoing.
