Ever since Tron founder Justin Sun made his infamous $4.58 million winning bid to lunch with Warren Buffett, the event has been surrounded by hype. From a 12 percent pump on TRX to a last-minute cancelation and reschedule, what has to be one of the most expensive meals on record grabbed the headlines — a lot.
It seems that Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s protege was on a quest to convince the world-famous investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO to change his mind as far as cryptocurrencies are concerned. Sun even went as far as to take several supporters with him including Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, and the CEO of eToro, Yoni Assia.
So, what happened? Here are the top five takeaways.
1. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Or to use the infamous words of Satoshi:
“If you don’t believe me or don’t get it, I don’t have time to try to convince you, sorry.”
In an interview posted by CNBC yesterday, it turns out that the Tron CEO had an uphill battle all the way.
Buffett had his mind firmly made up about cryptocurrencies the whole time. He conceded (somewhat condescendingly) that Sun and his friends had “behaved” perfectly but sustained his extreme anti-crypto stance, saying:
“Cryptocurrencies basically have no value and they don’t produce anything… It doesn’t reproduce, it doesn’t deliver, it can’t mail you a check, it can’t do anything… In terms of value, zero.”
“I don’t own any cryptocurrency. I never will,” Warren Buffett tells @BeckyQuick. #AskWarren https://t.co/0VjIDJSi7L pic.twitter.com/il4cT2hWkP
— CNBC (@CNBC) February 24, 2020
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He did say that he had enjoyed a “very pleasant” dinner though.
2. Buffet says he doesn’t own any cryptocurrency and never will.
When interviewer Becky Quick points out that Sun gave Buffett some bitcoin, he visibly starts to squirm. “What’s it like to be a Bitcoiner?” she jokes. To this, Buffet negates that he has any, chortling uncomfortably when he replies:
“I don’t have any Bitcoin.”
“You don’t own Bitcoin?” she asks again:
“I don’t own any cryptocurrency, I never will.”
3. Sun proves otherwise.
Taking to Twitter in response, Sun provides the blockchain explorer records to prove that Buffett is, in fact, the proud owner of both BTC and TRX:
“The cryptos $BTC/ $TRX Mr. Buffett owns remain intact w/ blockchain proof which is the beauty of blockchain.”
The cryptos $BTC/ $TRX Mr. Buffett owns remain intact w/ #blockchain proof which is the beauty of blockchain. I won’t interpret Mr.Buffett as a crypto investor, which he’s not. He only has the $BTC/ $TRX I gifted him in his @Samsung Galaxy Fold, which is a 20% return thus far!
— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) February 25, 2020
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Of course, whether Mr. Buffett understands how to access them or not appears to be a moot point since he maintains cryptocurrencies have zero value. And as Sun gifted the cryptocurrencies on Buffett’s Samsung Galaxy smartphone, many of his followers point out that the billionaire most likely got rid of the phone. One said:
“He gave the phone away or threw it in the trash.”
While another commented ironically:
“Doesn’t Buffett still use a flip phone?”
In actual fact, it turns out that they weren’t too far from the truth. Buffett later confirmed that he did receive the cryptocurrency from Justin Sun. However, he immediately gave it to the same charity foundation as the $4.6mn.
4. Buffett jokes about launching ‘WarrenCoin’.
This is where the whole ridiculous affair takes on yet another side of stupid as Justin Sun talks about supporting WarrenCoin on Tron.
Buffett did joke in the interview (after destroying cryptocurrencies and their worth) that he might start his own “Warren currency”. He said there would only be 21 million of them and investors could have a “little ledger sheet” from him:
“But you can’t do anything with [cryptocurrency] except sell it to someone else.”
That clearly got the Tron founder thinking. He took to Twitter again saying that he would support a WarrenCoin “wholeheartedly.”
I will support WARRENCOIN on #TRON! WARRENCOIN would be a great crypto & I would support it wholeheartedly! 7 billion WARRENCOIN will be issued without monetary value, which means everyone should have one and be Mr. Buffett’s fan. WARRENCOIN to the moon! ??
— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) February 25, 2020
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, this unpopular tweet was met with a barrage of disparaging replies such as:
“Can someone stop this clown imo. Embarrasing for the crypto industry.”
and:
“This is actually proving buffets point.”
5. Sometimes it’s okay to agree to disagree.
Let’s be honest. Did anyone really think that the rising Sun was going to change the 89-year-old Buffett’s mind?
We may fervently believe in the core competencies and value of crypto, but that doesn’t mean everyone has to. As Buffett also pointed out, he didn’t change Sun’s opinions either.
But, the lunch did donate a massive $4.58 million to San Fransico charity Glide and, as Buffett stated, “that will buy a lot of meals and provide a lot of beds.”
For his part, Sun maintains that he “learned so much” from talking to Buffett and enjoyed discussing “differences of opinions in investments & life experiences.” Sometimes, one simply has to accept that it’s ok to agree to disagree.
The post Top five takeaways from Justin Sun’s Lunch with Warren Buffett appeared first on CryptoSlate.
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