Cryptocurrency whiz behind winning $4.5 million bid for lunch with Warren Buffett
A cryptocurrency whiz bid more than $4.5 million for a private lunch with billionaire investor Warren Buffett -- a longtime bitcoin skeptic -- and won. Justin Sun, founder of Tron and CEO of BitTorrent crushed the record $3.5 million a bidder spent on lunch with Buffett in 2016 and 2012 at an annual auction on eBay. Proceeds from the online auction last week will benefit the Glide Foundation, a California charity that helps San Francisco's homeless.
The 28-year-old Sun, a self-declared Buffett fan, announced that he had won the auction in a Medium post Monday. Sun said he views his prize "as an opportunity to seek mutual understanding and growth" with a Bitcoin critic and will invite other "industry leaders" to accompany him to the lunch.
The celebrated investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO holds the auction every year. Buffett's first wife, Susie, introduced him to Glide after she volunteered there. She died in 2004, but Buffett continues to support the organization and over two decades has raised nearly $30 million for it.
Bidding on lunch with the so-called Oracle of Omaha started at $25,000 on May 26 and ended Friday. The pair and up to seven others will dine at steak house Smith & Wollensky in New York City.