The founder of a prominent cryptocurrency platform surprised everyone after making an unexpected purchase of a strange work of “art.”
crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun is now in possession of the controversial <a target="_blank" href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/duct-tape-banana-crypto-justin-sun-63a339a3″ rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>banana taped to the wall artwork that some analysts suggest could be integrated into Sun's digital asset platform using APENFT.
Convert art to nft
Maurizio Cattelan's iconic masterpiece “Comedian” has been purchased by the founder of TRON for a whopping 6.2 million dollars. Like many people around the world, Sun seems to have been captivated by the “banana taped to the wall” art.
Some observers said Sun saw something beyond the beauty of the artwork, suggesting the crypto entrepreneur might be interested in using art in his blockchain ecosystem.
Analysts believe that Justin Sun incorporates the artworks he has been collecting on the TRON network with the help of APENFT, saying that Sun's true goal in art collecting is to turn these masterpieces into non-fungible tokens (nfts).
Under the crypto platform, its TRC-721 nft standard allows the creation and transaction of digital art.
The crypto platform is known to be the third largest chain when talking about total value locked (TVL). DeFiLlama estimated that the network dominates almost 7% of the TVL market with its 34 protocols.
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As of Thursday, the market cap of cryptocurrencies reached $3.18 trillion. Chart: TradingView
A symbolic gesture?
Reports said that the TRON executive purchasing the banana taped onto a wall art could be a “symbolic gesture” to bring the artwork into the digital nft space.
The APENFT Foundation established by the founder of the cryptocurrency purchases works of art. Then, turn these masterpieces into digitally viewable pieces in the APENFT Virtual Museum in the Cryptovoxels metaverse.
TRON Founder Justin Sun. Image: Kryptomoney
Analysts said APENFT Marketplace, an nft trading platform launched by APENFT on TRON, features collections such as TPunks and TronMe. The crypto network also has TronVerse, a money-making game that uses nfts.
With the help of the TRC-721 standard of the APENFT platform and ecosystem, the crypto entrepreneur can create an art exhibition in the metaverse and position TRON as a major nft player.
Other art collections
As an art collector, Justin Sun has been investing in acquiring top-notch artwork. Sun saw the “Comedian” as more than just a banana taped together.
“It represents a cultural phenomenon that unites the worlds of art, memes and the cryptocurrency community,” he said.
Reports say that the TRON founder was able to outbid six other people to take home the contemporary artwork.
In addition to “Comedian,” Sun previously purchased Alberto Giacometti’s “Le Nez” for $78.4 million at auction in 2021. He also shelled out $20 million to acquire one of renowned painter Pablo Picasso’s masterpieces.
The crypto founder is also the proud owner of Andy Warhol's Three Self-Portraits, which he purchased for $2 million during Christie's 20th Century Art Evening Sale.
Featured image of Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images/AFP, TradingView chart
