Warren Buffett's $4.6 million crypto lunch was eBay's priciest purchase in 2019. It still hasn't happened.
by Theron Mohamed
- Warren Buffett’s $US4.6 million charity lunch was the biggest purchase on eBay last year.
- The billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO donated the auction proceeds to GLIDE, a homeless charity.
- Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun made the winning bid but dropped out days before, sparking conspiracies he was in trouble with Chinese authorities.
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Warren Buffett’s $US4.6 million charity lunch was the biggest purchase on eBay in 2019. The eye-wateringly expensive meal still hasn’t taken place.
Each year, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO and billionaire investor auctions off the chance to have lunch with him and donates the proceeds to GLIDE, a homeless charity in San Francisco. Justin Sun – the founder and CEO of Tron, which operates the world’s 12th largest cryptocurrency – made the winning bid last year.
Sun, a protégé of Alibaba founder Jack Ma, invited a raft of crypto bosses and President Donald Trump to attend the lunch. He hoped to convert Buffett, a notorious sceptic of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, into a true believer.
However, Sun bailed on the lunch at the last minute, blaming a bout of kidney stones. Reports of trouble with Chinese authorities and Tron employees being detained, and a public apology from Sun for overpromoting himself, fuelled conspiracies that the crypto boss dropped out under pressure from the Chinese government.
Tron’s communications director told BlockTV last August that the lunch was being rescheduled. A date still hasn’t been set.
Other big-ticket purchases on eBay last year included an autographed Tom Brady trading card for $US400,000, a Michael Jordan card for $US350,000, and numerous luxury cars and watches.