Justin Sun Still Plans to Buy 100,000 Bananas After Art Auction Backlash

By Sander Lutz

After purchasing a duct-taped banana at auction for $6.24 million last week, crypto billionaire Justin Sun announced he would reward the banana’s original vendor—a Manhattan fruit merchant who parted ways with it for 25 cents—by offering to buy 100,000 additional bananas from the man’s sidewalk stand.

But shortly thereafter, the vendor dismissed the plan as nearly impossible to execute and said it would reap barely any profit. Tron officials told Decrypt on Friday that it is in communication with the vendor, and that Sun currently still intends to purchase the bananas.

On Thursday, Sun announced that as a gesture of gratitude to Shah Alam, the fruit vendor who “inadvertently became a crucial contributor” to a work of “profound cultural and artistic significance” by providing the banana in question, the Tron blockchain founder would purchase 100,000 bananas from Alam’s stand and distribute them “free worldwide” to eaters who presented valid I.D. 

“I hope this initiative will bring his story to a broader audience and, one day, I look forward to visiting his fruit stand in person to express my gratitude again,” Sun said of Alam on Thursday.

Shortly thereafter, Alam responded by explaining that it would be incredibly costly and logistically difficult to acquire so many bananas. He added that the profit margin on such a purchase would be almost negligible, according to a Friday report in The New York Times.  

“There’s not any profit in selling bananas,” Alam said.

The fruit stand’s owner, Mohammed Islam, added that no one from Sun’s team had reached out to contact him or vet the banana plan, per the report.

Decrypt reached out to Sun’s team on Friday regarding the quickly unpeeling "Bananagate."

“We appreciate the feedback from the stand and will find a proper plan forward,” a Tron spokesperson told Decrypt. 

The spokesperson added that the Tron team is actively coordinating on the issue and has people on the ground working on it, but that the Thanksgiving holiday has naturally caused some delays. Upon further communication, the Tron team explicitly stated that despite Alam's feedback, Sun still plans to purchase the 100,000 bananas from the vendor.

Sun has not yet publicly commented on the status of his global fruit distribution scheme. But he did eat his newly acquired $6 million banana—artist Maurizio Cattelan's "Comedian"—earlier Friday morning, during a filmed press conference.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Editor's note: This story was corrected after publication, as the original version of the article noted that Sun had abandoned the plan to purchase the bananas following Alam's feedback. Tron representatives clarified to Decrypt that their comment had been misinterpreted, and that Sun indeed still plans to purchase the 100,000 bananas.

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