The winner of this year’s “Power Lunch with Warren” charity auction – who paid a record $4.6 million for the privilege of a 45-minute lunch meeting with the Oracle of Omaha – has just outed himself as a crypto enthusiast and ICO founder.
And though he agreed to pay a record sum for the privilege, we imagine Buffett is wondering right now if there’s any sum that could justify the epic session of crypto mansplaining the billionaire investor is about to endure.
Justin Sun, best known for founding the cryptocurrency Tron, which had a brief stint as the altcoin-of-the-moment, revealed in a tweet on Tuesday that he was the winning bidder. The 29-year-old Chinese national is also CEO of BitTorrent (remember BitTorrent?).
Sun said that he will be inviting friends from the crypto industry to try and “talk to [Buffett] about the promise of blockchain” (the terms of the deal allow Sun to invite up to seven friends).
“I’m excited to talk to Warren Buffett about the promise of blockchain and to get valuable tips and insights from him about entrepreneurship and making bold bets on the future,” Sun said in a statement, per WSJ.
An avowed crypto skeptic, Buffett has derided bitcoin and ICOs as a scam. Meanwhile, Sun’s Tron project raised $17 billion via an ICO that is now worth roughly 1/10th that.
The revelation just so happened to coincide with a brutal day for tech stocks that drove the Nasdaq into correction territory. Since Buffett announced Berkshire’s stake in Amazon – a stake that the Oracle of Omaha was careful to specify wasn’t his idea – the e-commerce giant’s shares have fallen 15%.
I officially announce I’ve won the record-setting 20th-anniversary charity lunch hosted by @WarrenBuffett. I’ll also invite #blockchain industry leaders to meet with a titan of investment. I hope this benefits everyone. #TRON #TRX #BTT #BitTorrent pic.twitter.com/EMZ4TMhgpR
— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) June 3, 2019
While Buffett has dismissed bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a scam, “rat poison squared” and boasted that, if he could, he would buy a five-year put on every cryptocurrency, the 88-year-old investor has said he believes blockchain technology may hold some promise.
So maybe Buffett and the 8 crypto diehards with whom he will be sharing a meal can find a happy medium.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/317UoII Tyler Durden