By CCN: The BitTorrent cryptocurrency price tanked over 6% in Monday trading after Tron CEO Justin Sun’s latest announcement stunt flopped in hilarious fashion.
Tron Founder Will Pitch Crypto to Bitcoin Hater Warren Buffett
It turns out Sun was the mystery bidder who won a charity lunch auction to dine with investing oracle Warren Buffett. This year is the 20th anniversary of Buffett’s annual charity “power lunch” auction, and a record-setting bid of $4.5 million for the lunch date made headlines Friday. The previous record was $3.45 million in 2016.
Shortly after the news broke, Justin Sun took to Twitter for one of his infamous Tron and BitTorrent price-pumping “pre-announcements.” The crypto tycoon breathlessly told Tronsters to “stay tuned” for a “Big reveal.”
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
‘Please Tell Me This Isn’t the News’
But cryptocurrency traders are feeling bearish about BitTorrent (BTT) and Tron (TRX) Monday. CoinMarketCap showed Tron’s price had dropped 3% after the big reveal, outpacing Bitcoin’s minor pullback. The BitTorrent cryptocurrency suffered an even larger downturn.
The BTT cryptocurrency tanked after Justin Sun’s Buffett lunch failed to impress. | Source: CoinMarketCap
The announcement was more than disappointing for cryptocurrency investors and traders, who apparently expected something more substantive. News of the lavish expense for a lunch with an investor who hates crypto unleashed a savage barrage of blowback:
WTF!!!!! This is the big news!!??! I’m selling all my tron
— PerroLunátiko (@perrolunatiko) June 3, 2019
Hahahhahaaaaa now wait for the #TRX crash!!!
— Luke Roberts (@LukeDRoberts) June 3, 2019
Let the dump begin
— MmmK (@IS300F1184) June 3, 2019
Please tell me this isn’t the news…
— Crypto ₿rady (@BPugliese96) June 3, 2019
BitTorrent Price and Crypto Credibility Take Another Hit
“It’s rat poison squared,” Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett said of Bitcoin at the Berkshire annual shareholder meeting in May 2018. | Source: Shutterstock
Though BitTorrent’s price had been cooling, it heated up after Sun’s announcement tease Friday. He didn’t say anything substantive in the tweet, so speculators deserved to lose their money.
But crypto markets apparently anticipated something substantive. Maybe something more like $4.5 million invested in project development.
A former BitTorrent executive said in January that there’s “no way” Tron’s blockchain can handle the high rate of BitTorrent transactions. Instead of investing that much disposable cash in Tron scalability, Sun blew it on a self-aggrandizing vanity lunch with a man who’s made a fortune on Wall Street and doesn’t conceal his hatred for crypto.
Many crypto enthusiasts dream of mass adoption. But the industry’s leaders should be careful not to leave the “adoption” part out in pursuit of the mass part.
What is it that they want the masses to adopt? Watered down, centralized, corporatized altcoins, or the Internet of Money?
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to, CCN.
