News Scrap

Key Takeaways

Justin Sun acquired Maurizio Cattelan’s ‘Comedian’ for $6.24 million, emphasizing the connection between art and cryptocurrency.
TRON’s blockchain hosts the largest circulating supply of USD Tether and includes over 275 million accounts as of November 2024.

Geneva, Switzerland, December 2, 2024– Justin Sun, founder of TRON and Advisor to HTX, held a press conference in Hong Kong to celebrate his acquisition of Comedian, the iconic conceptual artwork by Maurizio Cattelan famously known as the “world’s most expensive banana.” Sun’s record-setting bid of $6.24 million, announced on November 21, 2024, marked a pivotal moment for the intersection of art, memes, and crypto culture.

Event Highlights

The press conference opened with a welcome address by Justin Sun, where he discussed the significance of Comedian as a cultural bridge uniting the art and crypto culture. A highlight of the event was the Banana Eating Ceremony, where Sun honored the iconic moment from Art Basel Miami to celebrate the artwork’s cultural legacy and enduring impact. This was followed by an on-site Q&A session with MetaEra, Fashion Network, CoinDesk, and Foresight News, fostering discussions about the acquisition and its implications for the convergence of art and blockchain technology.

The event brought together over 150 attendees, including key media representatives from Sotheby’s, Financial Times, BAZAAR ART, Nikkei, Bloomberg, PANews, CNN, as well as industry leaders and art enthusiasts, to explore the intersection of art, memes, and crypto culture.

“Maurizio Cattelan’s ‘Comedian’ resonates deeply with me because it connects art, memes, and cryptocurrency, three seemingly disparate worlds. All of them rely on collective participation, challenge norms, and foster creativity, making ‘Comedian’ a perfect representation of the era we live in.” – Justin Sun, Founder of TRON

Bridging Art, Technology, and Culture

Through TRON, Sun has built a decentralized platform that empowers artists with resources to digitize their work and share it with a global audience. The TRC-721 standard for NFTs introduced by TRON has revolutionized digital art, making it more accessible and fostering broader engagement.

Sun’s contributions continue to merge art and technology, cultivating an inclusive and vibrant Web3 cultural environment.

About TRON DAO

TRON DAO is a community-governed DAO dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and dApps.

Founded in September 2017 by Justin Sun, the TRON network has continued to deliver impressive achievements since MainNet launch in May 2018. July 2018 also marked the integration of BitTorrent, a pioneer in decentralized Web3 services, boasting over 100 million monthly active users. The TRON network has gained incredible traction in recent years. As of November 2024, it has over 275 million total user accounts on the blockchain, more than 9 billion total transactions, and over $20 billion in total value locked (TVL), as reported on TRONSCAN.

In addition, TRON hosts the largest circulating supply of USD Tether (USDT) stablecoin across the globe, overtaking USDT on Ethereum since April 2021. The TRON network completed full decentralization in December 2021 and is now a community-governed DAO. Most recently in October 2022, TRON was designated as the national blockchain for the Commonwealth of Dominica, which marks the first time a major public blockchain partnered with a sovereign nation to develop its national blockchain infrastructure. On top of the government’s endorsement to issue Dominica Coin (“DMC”), a blockchain-based fan token to help promote Dominica’s global fanfare, seven existing TRON-based tokens – TRX, BTT, NFT, JST, USDD, USDT, TUSD, have been granted statutory status as authorized digital currency and medium of exchange in the country.