Legendary billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett will meet with Justin Sun, founder of blockchain platform Tron and CEO of BitTorrent. Sun is the winner of the 20th eBay Power Lunch with Warren Buffett Auction, an annual charity event. The recipient is San Francisco-based non-profit GLIDE Foundation, a 50-year-old organization that helps the homeless and poor in the Bay Area.
Sun bid a record-smashing $4,567,888 to win the auction which opened with a bid of $25,000 last Sunday. The auction, hosted on eBay, closed on Friday, May 31, with Sun’s bid soaring past the previous record of $3,456,789, marking the charity’s estimated raise to date at $30 million.
Sun says his donation will provide critical support for GLIDE and the local community where poverty has turned swaths of streets into homeless encampments. The organization provides essential programs, including free meals, violence intervention, childcare and early education for low-income families.
“BitTorrent and TRON’s US headquarters are in San Francisco, and bidding on this charity auction was a key priority for our team.”
It went up again! We are incredibly humbled by this astounding act of giving. These funds will do so much to carry GLIDE forward into the decades to come, serving SF’s most marginalized people in a city where the gap between wealthy & poor continues to grow. #powerofonelunch pic.twitter.com/GGc4fyDz6t
— GLIDE (@GLIDEsf) June 1, 2019
Says Karen Hanrahan, CEO and president of GLIDE,
“All of the proceeds of this record-breaking winning bid will be used to help people overcome barriers such as homelessness, addiction, hunger and social isolation and reach their full potential.”
While Buffett is an outspoken critic of Bitcoin and its supporters and believes cryptocurrencies “will come to a bad ending,” he’s a proponent of blockchain, the underlying technology.
Sun, whose userbase on platforms Tron and BitTorrent utilize cryptocurrencies TRX and BTT to transfer value, says he’d like to talk to Buffett about blockchain.
“I’m excited to talk to Warren Buffett about the promise of blockchain and to get valuable tips and insights from him about entrepreneurship and making bold bets on the future.”
Sun and up to seven invited guests are expected to attend a private lunch with Buffett, previously held at the Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse in New York City.
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