Justin Sun, the founder of cryptocurrency company TRON and CEO of Bit Torrent has paid a lot of money just to have lunch with Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
Crypto Meets Non-Crypto Over Cocktails
The money was for an annual auction occurring on eBay. All the funds that Sun has pledged will go to a charity project called the Glide Foundation, which seeks to assist the homeless population in San Francisco. Sun ultimately pledged more than the previous record of $3.5 million, set in both 2012 and 2016.
What’s particularly interesting is just how different both Sun and Buffett really are. Buffett, for example, has often been very skeptical of cryptocurrencies, particularly bitcoin. He has often warned investors in the past to steer clear of it, claiming:
It’s a gambling device. There’s been a lot of fraud connected with it. There’s been disappearances, so there’s a lot lost on it. Bitcoin hasn’t produced anything. It doesn’t do anything. It just sits there. It’s like a seashell or something, and that is not an investment to me.
He has even compared bitcoin to buttons on a jacket, explaining;
I’ll tear off a button, here. What I’ll have here is a little token… I’ll offer it to you for $1,000 and I’ll see if I can get the price up to $2,000 by the end of the day… but the button has one use and it’s a very limited use.
Sun, on the other hand, has made his name and fortune with crypto. TRON currently stands as one of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap, and Sun himself enjoys a net worth of approximately $200 million – not bad for someone who isn’t even 29 years of age.
Of course, this is small beans compared to the $82.5 billion net worth boasted by Warren Buffett. Sun, in that respect, probably still has a lot he can learn from the entrepreneur, and Sun has often described himself as a big “Buffett fan.” In a recent Medium post, Sun described his upcoming meeting with the billionaire as an “opportunity to seek mutual understanding and growth.” He’s also inviting several other crypto-based industry leaders to accompany him.
Is Buffett Missing the Boat?
In the post, Sun mentions that while he admires Buffett greatly, there’s a huge possibility he’s missing the appeal and strong nature of bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies. He writes:
I want to point out that even one of the most successful investors of all times can sometimes miss a coming wave. Buffett has admitted he overpaid for a big investment food giant Kraft Heinz Co. while failing to realize the potential of the likes of Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet, the parent of Google and even Apple.
Perhaps there’s something that Buffett can learn from Sun as well.