On Monday (June 3), Justin Sun, the Founder and CEO of TRON Foundation, talked about his upcoming lunch with Warren Buffett, who is not only one of Bitcoin’s harshest critics, but the world's third-richest person (with an estimated personal net worth of $82.5 billion), as well as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
But before we get to discussing this interesting lunch date, it is worth recalling how Justin had been teasing the crypto community with his exciting and mysterious tweets during the past one week or so.
It all started on May 26 when Justin sent out this tweet:
Something huge and amazing going about #TRON and #BitTorrent. I will share with you after June 1. I think I have 70% to win and nail it. Fingers crossed! $TRX $BTT
— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) May 26, 2019
Although not everyone was excited about this “announcement of an announcement”, there were enough traders/investors who got excited enough to buy TRON (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT), which seems to have helped them achieve not insignificant price gains shortly after this tweet got posted. These surges in price helped TRX to once again be a top 10 cryptoasset (by market cap) and BTT to enter the top 30 list for the first time.
On Thursday (May 30), TRON Foundation announced that BitTorrent Inc., a San Francisco-based company that is a leader in peer-to-peer file sharing, will be incorporating the BitTorrent File System (BTFS) protocol to “allow users to receive and host storage on their computers with other individuals and businesses.” At this time, more than a few people thought that this news was the “something huge and amazing” that Justin had promised earlier. However, that didn’t quite make sense since Justin had said in his May 26 tweet that the real announcement would only come “after June 1.”
Well, two days later, Justin announced that he had managed to secure a “big win for the #blockchain community”, but he still did not reveal what he had managed to achieve. All we knew was that he had won something that would be of great importance to the blockchain/crypto community.
I did it! Big win for the #blockchain community! Big reveal June 3. Stayed tuned! #TRX $TRX $BTT #BTT https://t.co/C2ZcINfcKb
— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) June 1, 2019
Finally, earlier today (around 16:03 UTC on June 3), Justin sent out a tweet to announce what he had won: “the record-setting 20th anniversary charity lunch hosted by billionaire investor Warren Buffett.”
Looking forward to lunch with @WarrenBuffett. Will be a great opportunity for mutual understanding and knowledge transfer. It's a new era for #TRON and #BitTorrent, and also a big step for the whole #blockchain history. Let’s see what happens next. https://t.co/OOkpnFsBif pic.twitter.com/Sstkj6xkgs
— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) June 3, 2019
According to a report by Decrypt, the TRON CEO had “spent $4.6 million in a charity auction held on eBay last week to win a ‘Power Lunch’ with the billionaire investor,” and he “will be able to take seven guests with him to the Smith and Wollensky Steakhouse, New York, to eat prime cuts of beef and discuss anything he wishes.”
Bloomberg says that this annual auction “raises money for San Francisco-based charity Glide, which Buffett’s late wife Susan supported” and that Glide Foundation “provides meals for the city’s homeless, offers support to domestic violence victims, and helps people find shelter.”
In his open letter to the TRON community, which was posted to the TRON Foundation’s Medium blog, Justin said that:
- He was a long-term fan of Warren Buffett and his “long-term value investing strategy.”
- He sees this upcoming lunch meeting as a chance to “seek mutual understanding and growth.”
- To help the blockchain/crypto community, he would invite “several industry leaders” (chosen with the help of the TRON community) to come to this lunch with him.
- All of the proceeds from the auction would go toward helping the homeless in San Francisco, the city in which BitTorrent Inc. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of TRON) is headquartered.
- He sees this win as not just a victory for him, TRON, or BitTorrent, but also for “the entire blockchain community.”
According to Bloomberg’s report, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO had this to say (via an emailed comment from his assistant) about his future lunch date with the TRON CEO:
“I’m delighted with the fact that Justin has won the lunch and am looking forward to meeting him and his friends. We are going to have a good time, and Glide will use his contribution to help many thousands of people.”
Update (04:30 UTC on June 4): As for which friends Justin will take with him to this lunch event, Anthony Pomplianao (aka “Pomp”), Co-founder & Partner at Morgan Creek Digital, has aldready indicated via Twitter that he is available and interested in coming. Changpeng Zhao (aka “CZ”), Co-Founder and CEO of Binance, has tweeted that he was invited by Justin but he can’t make it because New York City is “too far” away. However, CZ did recommend that crypto advocate Pomp would be a good person for Justin to take with him. He also called what Justin had done a “very smart move” and explained why:
Lastly, very smart move for @justinsuntron, now the whole traditional financial industry has eyes on #crypto (and $TRX of course). Who is this #crypto kid? Kudos for pushing adoption, Justin! 👐👍👏
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) June 4, 2019