The crypto mogul Justin Sun—who gained art world infamy last year for buying Maurizio Cattelan’s banana piece Comedian (2019) for $6.2m—is in the spotlight again for other reasons. Two years ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US’s main financial regulator, charged Sun and his companies—Tron, BitTorrent and Rainberry—with selling unregistered securities and fraudulently manipulating the price of the digital token Tronix. But earlier this year SEC U-turned and paused the case. (The SEC and Sun were both contacted for comment.)
Meanwhile, CNN reports that Sun has become one of the most prominent investors in the World Liberty Financial crypto project, backed by the Trump family. And in May, Sun attended a dinner for the highest-paying customers of Donald Trump’s personal cryptocurrency known (subtly) as $Trump. Sun duly spent more than $40m on $Trump coins, earning himself the top spot on the investor leaderboard that night, according to The New York Times. It all sounds a bit, er, bananas to us.