A crypto founder paid $4.6 million to have lunch with Warren Buffett, who called bitcoin ‘rat poison squared’

Dave Weaver/AP

The cryptocurrency founder Justin Sun tweeted that he won the annual charity auction for a lunch with Warren Buffett.
Sun founded the cryptocurrency "tron" and paid nearly $4.6 million for the luncheon.
Watch tron trade live.

The cryptocurrency founder Justin Sun announced in a tweet on Monday morning that he had secured a lunch with Warren Buffett after bidding a record $4,57,888 in a charity auction. Sun, who is based in Singapore, is originally from China where the number "8" is known to signify good luck.

The lunch, which is presented by eBay and the Glide Foundation, will be held at the famed steakhouse Smith & Wollensky in New York City. The auction was hosted exclusively on eBay, with final bids due Friday, May 31. As in previous years, 100% of the proceeds donated to the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco-based charity which provides local services to the homeless.

Sun is the founder of the cryptocurrency "tron" which is a top 10 "crypto network," according to Sun’s LinkedIn profile. He has also founded Peiwo, a Chinese peer-to-peer communications app, and is a self-described "protege" of Jack Ma, the famed billionaire and founder of Alibaba. Sun graduated from Hupan University, founded by Ma, and has reportedly made a donation of $1.5 million to his alma mater.

The cryptobull also tweeted that he would invite other blockchain industry leaders to meet with Buffett, with the hopes that the meeting would "benefit everyone." Buffett previously referred to bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, as "rat poison squared.’

Sun hopes he can shift the billionaire’s views on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. "It is very common in investment circles that people will change their minds," he told Bloomberg.

Buffett’s business partner Charlie Munger has also strongly criticized digital currencies.

"I think the people who are professional traders that go into trading cryptocurrencies, it is just disgusting," Munger said. "It is like somebody else is trading turds and you decide ‘I can’t be left out."

Munger is not expected to attend the luncheon.

As of current trading, the $4.6 million bid is equivalent to 543.6 bitcoins and 119.3 million trons. There are over 66 billion trons in circulation, with a total market cap of $2.6 billion at current prices, according to industry-website CoinMarketCap.com.

It is not clear how much tron Sun currently holds, however a third of the cryptocurrency, worth some $800 million, is not in circulation.

Tron is up more than 100% this year.

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