What’s worth millions, taped to a wall, and destined to rot? Hint: It’s art you can’t hang for long.

Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous duct-taped banana art piece, Comedian, fetched an eye-popping $6.24 million, including fees, at Sotheby’s contemporary art auction in New York on Wednesday night.

The sale saw six bidders battle it out before Jen Hua, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s and chairman of Sotheby’s China, placed the winning bid on Tron founder Justin Sun’s behalf. 

The artwork shattered its $1.5 million pre-sale estimate and became its place as one of the most expensive—and controversial—art pieces (or should we say fruit) ever.

Sotheby’s accepted crypto payments for this sale as the market is seeing new heights following Donald Trump’s re-election, with Bitcoin (BTC) soaring to $97,000 on Wednesday.

The crypto entrepreneur, Sun, claimed the artwork in a heated five-minute bidding war that involved six other participants. 

“This is not just an artwork; it represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community,” Sun wrote on X, sharing his “banana” experience. 

He announced plans to eat the banana in the coming days as part of what he described as “honoring its place in both art history and popular culture.”

The artwork comprises a real banana affixed to a wall with duct tape, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and instructions for replacing the fruit as it inevitably decays. 

During the heated auction, Sotheby’s auctioneer Oliver Barker quipped, “These are the words I never thought I’d say, ‘$5 million for a banana.’”

The banana’s rise to infamy in the art scene began in 2019 when one sold for $120,000 at Art Basel. The work became a viral sensation after performance artist David Datuna ate the banana, dubbing his act “Hungry Artist.”

Since then, Comedian has sparked conversations about the absurdity and subjectivity of art valuation.

Justin Sun founded the blockchain platform Tron in 2017. In December 2021, he stepped down as CEO of the Tron Foundation, claiming he had transferred control of the project to Tron DAO, a non-profit decentralized autonomous organization.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

With Bitcoin surpassing all-time highs by the hour, even noted Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff is trying to get in on the action by selling his Ordinals collection.

On Sunday, the financial commentator and radio host said on X (formerly Twitter) that the Peter Schiff Ordinals collection, also known as the Golden Triumph Ordinals Set, would go up for sale on Magic Eden.

Bitcoin surged past $80,000 Sunday in the crypto-optimistic wake of Donald Trump’s election victory last week. It has since passed the $87,000 mark.

Launched in 2023, the “Golden Triumph Ordinals Set” is a collection of 51 Ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoin Blockchain. Similar to a non-fungible token (NFT), a Bitcoin Ordinal is a digital collectible on the Bitcoin blockchain. Each Ordinal is inscribed on an individual satoshi, the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin. Ordinals have included text, images, video clips, and even video games on the Bitcoin network.

The current floor price for one of the Schiff NFTs is 0.1245 BTC, around $10,774 for each collectible, according to Magic Eden data. Despite having a low trading volume, the Schiff NFTs rose 149% last year with an original price of 0.05 BTC, around $1,885.

“There’s 21 million Bitcoin but only 50 Golden Triumph ordinals. It’s clear which one is more valuable,” Schiff tweeted. “You can’t argue with math.”

It’s unclear if Schiff is attempting to profit from Bitcoin mania. The gold bug did not immediately return a request for comment.

Crypto Twitter reacted to Schiff’s tweet with a mix of surprise and skepticism.

Despite Schiff announcing the sale of the Ordinals collection, he claimed not to own a Bitcoin wallet himself or ownership of the collection.

“The ordinals belong to the people who bought them in the original auction,” he said.

When asked why someone would part with the increasingly valuable Bitcoin for one of his NFTs, Schiff said it was because of scarcity.

“Why is Bitcoin more valuable,” Schiff said. “The Golden Triumph originals are way more scarce than Bitcoin.”

Schiff has consistently argued that gold is a better investment than Bitcoin, comparing it to Tulip mania.

On Monday, he decried Trump’s vow to establish a Bitcoin Reserve, prognosticating that such a move would cause a massive market meltdown.

“To maintain the pretense that its Bitcoin reserve has actual value, the U.S. government would be forced to keep buying, destroying the value of the dollar in the process.” he tweeted.

In any case, it appears as though Schiff wants a piece of the action after more than a decade of denial. Welcome aboard.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair and Josh Quittner

Sixteen years ago today, the Bitcoin whitepaper was released by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. Now, a British-Asian macroeconomist claims that he is the elusive creator of the leading cryptocurrency, as he revealed Thursday at a small event in London.

On Wednesday, a press release was blasted to journalists, claiming that “a live demonstration” would be conducted to “conclusively” prove that the real Satoshi has been identified. The event was held at the Frontline Club, a prestigious pub in London that insisted it is not affiliated with the event, costing £500 a ticket—with tweeted event photos suggesting that only a handful of people ultimately attended.

Stephen Mollah took the stage claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, Joe Tidy of BBC News reported on Twitter. Mollah told the audience that he had previously attempted to out himself as the creator of Bitcoin, but “someone stopped him”. He also claimed that he was later interviewed by the BBC, yet they did not publish the story.

As the event dragged on for an hour, those in attendance reportedly grew restless as Mollah delayed in showing his evidence—claiming he couldn’t get his laptop working. Eventually, the man pulled up “easy to fake screenshots,” the BBC journalist said.

Charles Anderson, the organizer of the event and “PR manager for Satoshi Nakamoto” according to his LinkedIn, claims to have seen “cryptographic” evidence that Mollah is the real deal—but this was not presented to attendees.

One way that Mollah could prove that he is Satoshi is by moving Bitcoin from the Genesis block. Mollah claimed that he will do that at a later date during a “proper, official press conference.”

“Genesis block Bitcoin cannot be moved as simply as you think,” Mollah told the BBC journalist in the crowd. “It can be moved, but I need to prepare for it. I’ll do it. Very soon.”

At the event, Mollah also claimed to have created the Twitter logo, ChatGPT, and the Eurobond, a type of debt.

Mollah’s LinkedIn account lists the Bitcoin whitepaper as one of his publications, claims that he has patented Bitcoin and blockchain technology, and states that he is an executive director of Coinbase Limited. 

However, he is not listed on the centralized exchange’s board of directors, and Coinbase did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

“I am an innovator in the financial technology. I am known by my Japanese pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. I am the inventor of Bitcoin and blockchain technology,” Mollah’s LinkedIn says. “I am not a Japanese man. I am a British-Asian macroeconomist.”

On Twitter, Mollah has also been sounding this siren from as early as 2014, posting that “there is no any other Satoshi Nakamoto beside me.” In 2018, he posted a spree of tweets calling out all of the “Faketoshis” out there. 

The search for Satoshi has raged on for as long as Bitcoin has been in circulation. Recently, an HBO documentary claimed that the elusive crypto creator was Bitcoin core developer Peter Todd, who has denied the claims—and many Bitcoiners were skeptical of the evidence.

Mollah said that he aimed to put an end to the ongoing speculation Thursday.

“Today, I just wanted to say that it is me, I am here. And I am going to publish, very soon, the documentation that the people need, the journalists need,” he told the audience. “They must stop searching for Satoshi Nakamoto, online or offline, anywhere in the world. Because there is no other Satoshi Nakamoto besides me.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward