Warren Buffett-Justin Sun charity lunch postponed
Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun will have to wait a little longer to change Warren Buffett's opinion on digital currency.
Sun postponed his lunch with the Berkshire Hathaway CEO due to kidney stones, the 29-year-old’s TRON Foundation announced Monday on Twitter.
“TRON Foundation announces postponement of Warren Buffett lunch, press conferences after founder Justin Sun falls ill with kidney stones. Parties agreed to reschedule at a later date,” the foundation’s tweet read.
Sun placed a record-breaking bid of $4,567,888 to have a private lunch with Buffett. Sun previously said he would invite leaders in blockchain — technology used to verify and record bitcoin or cryptocurrency transactions — to meet the billionaire. As part of the auction, the winning bidder can bring up to seven friends to go to lunch with Buffett at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York City.
The private lunch was part of an auction geared toward raising money for the Glide Foundation that’s focused on alleviating the homeless crisis in San Francisco, Calif. Buffett began working with Glide through his wife, Susan, when she volunteered at the charity. The auction, which began in 2000, has raised nearly $30 million for Glide.
Some are interested to see whether Sun’s lunch with Buffett will steer the 88-year-old’s opinion about cryptocurrency. The billionaire has repeatedly slammed cryptocurrency, even saying bitcoin has “no unique value at all” in a February interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
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
“It attracts charlatans,” Buffett said. “If you do something phony by going out and selling yo-yos or something, there’s no money in it — but when you get into Wall Street, there’s huge money.”
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He also previously called bitcoin “probably rat poison squared,” a “mirage” and “not a currency.”
Luckily for Sun, Buffett did tell CNBC that blockchain has potential. The Chinese entrepreneur said in a news release in June announcing his winning bid that he was looking forward to talking to Buffett about it.