Interview: Tong, PANews
Written by: Zen, PANews
The 'slash youth' Sun Yuchen recently gained two more titles: 'Cattelan Banana Holder' and 'Advisor and Largest Investor in the World Liberty Financial project of U.S. President Trump’s Crypto Project.'
The last time Sun Yuchen made headlines in an auction was in 2019 when he won Buffett's charity lunch for 4.567888 million dollars. This time, Sun Yuchen did not expect that the banana he purchased for 6.24 million dollars would gain unprecedented attention. 'Even my relatives in the village saw the news and asked me about it.' On November 29, Sun Yuchen held a banana launch event at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong and publicly ate the banana.
After the meeting, Sun Yuchen accepted a special interview with PANews. In addition to supporting Hong Kong as a hub for art and Web3, he has heavily invested in Trump’s crypto project and is optimistic about the development of the U.S. crypto market, with great confidence in 2025.
The world's most expensive banana attracts global attention.
Sotheby’s auctioneer Bark commented as the bidding price kept rising: 'I never thought I would say, ‘A banana for 5 million dollars.’ In the end, this banana was sold for 5.2 million dollars, and with the fees, the total transaction price reached 6.24 million dollars, paid for with cryptocurrency by Sun Yuchen.
Before the auction, Sun Yuchen's team estimated the banana at 2 million to 5 million dollars. 'There were a total of seven bidders. At the time, I didn’t think I could win the bid, so I set a bottom line for myself. If it went beyond 5 million dollars significantly, I wouldn’t buy it.' Sun Yuchen stated that within 10 seconds of successfully winning the bid, he found it a bit hard to believe, as initially he was just participating for fun. Immediately after, he received interview requests from global media, which surprised him, and he then made the decision to eat the banana and become a part of its history.
According to reports, this banana was bought by Sotheby’s staff from a fruit stand in Manhattan’s Upper East Side that morning. The owner of the fruit stand, who is from Bangladesh, revealed that the selling price of this banana was 35 cents. This means that the auction price was 14.85 million times the actual value of the banana.
The 'most expensive banana in history' has successfully landed on major news and social media hot searches. The expensive auction itself is a true representation of the meaning of this work. The concept art piece by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan (Comedian), which looks like a fresh banana taped to a wall, originally intended to humorously and absurdly challenge the audience’s traditional understanding of art. Through an ordinary banana, it explores the value of art, the essence of consumerism, and the absurdity of the art market, intending to satirize market speculation. Before the auction, the BAN Meme coin launched by Sotheby’s vice president also successfully preheated this auction event in the crypto circle, with BAN’s market cap reaching a maximum of 378 million dollars. It was this Meme coin that attracted Sun Yuchen's attention to the banana auction.
In fact, this work is limited to three pieces, two of which were sold for 120,000 dollars in 2019, and the third was donated to the Guggenheim Museum. Each 'work' comes with a corresponding certificate of ownership and installation instructions, allowing the owner to replace the banana at any time according to their wishes. So even if Sun Yuchen eats this banana, he can still replace it with another one. The work was also eaten by viewers when exhibited in Miami and South Korea.
“This is not just a piece of art; it represents a cultural phenomenon that connects the art, meme, and cryptocurrency communities. I believe this work will inspire more thoughts and discussions in the future and will become a part of history.”
In Sun Yuchen’s view, this banana also aligns with the spirit of blockchain. “It can be assembled freely and exhibited anywhere as long as I give my authorization; this is akin to the charm of decentralization, resembling the blockchain and crypto world.”
In fact, Sun Yuchen had previously attempted to combine art and the crypto community. In 2021, when the NFT concept was hot, he donated a Picasso work (Naked Woman Lying with Necklace), five works from crypto artist Beeple (Ocean’s Front), (ABUNBANCE), and a complete set of NFT works from crypto artist Pak (Cube) to the APENFT Foundation. The total value of these masterpieces exceeded 200 million RMB, all used for the APENFT Foundation's exploration in 'Art + Blockchain.'
The 6.24 million dollar banana is indeed expensive, but it successfully attracted global attention.
Will make efforts to persuade Trump to develop on the Tron blockchain; 2025 is a big year for crypto.
In Sun Yuchen’s heart, the banana holder is merely an amateur label, while his recently added title of 'Advisor and Largest Investor in the World Liberty Financial project of U.S. President Trump’s Crypto Project' has also garnered widespread attention.
Public reports indicate that Sun Yuchen invested 30 million dollars in World Liberty Financial (WLFI), thus becoming the largest investor in the project.
When asked why he invested in WLFI, Sun Yuchen said: 'I have been in this industry for 12 years, experiencing three cycles. Many people might feel that our industry still needs technological development and mass adoption. People often ask what exactly we are doing and what use it has. My view is exactly the opposite; I believe our industry’s technology and everything else is ready. It's just that regulatory reasons have always restricted us from using it.'
In Sun Yuchen’s opinion, stablecoins on the Tron blockchain are the most typical case. The innovation of stablecoin technology should far exceed banks and SWIFT, but it is still restricted in many places. Regulation must start from the United States, as it serves as a model for all countries, with everyone looking at the American example.
“I understand crypto after all, so I can share with WLFI a lot of information on how the crypto world thinks and what directions are most likely to attract the most customers. The World Liberty Financial project aims to combine traditional finance with blockchain, hoping to allow traditional banks to deposit money into DeFi and allow DeFi’s funds to enter traditional finance.”
Sun Yuchen stated that he would later persuade Trump to develop DeFi on the Tron blockchain. If WDFI issues a new stablecoin in the future, I would suggest he issues it on Tron. Currently, a lot of USDT is used on exchanges and for some payments, but it hasn't entered everyone's life yet. 'I believe that with WLFI, DeFi, including Tron, can enter everyone's life; that's my dream.'
“I think 2025 will indeed be a big year. The four-year cycle in the crypto industry is very obvious, and now it coincides with Trump being elected and a regulatory-friendly environment. However, I won’t predict prices because sometimes prices can exceed your expectations.” Sun Yuchen recalled that he once bought Bitcoin for 0.5 dollars on Taobao, and during a time when price sensitivity was low, its price rose to 10 dollars, which everyone thought was crazy.
