At the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun presented Maurizio Cattelan's artwork *Comedian* (2019)—a duct-taped banana that sold for $6.2 million at Sotheby's—to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road online marketplace. Ulbricht, recently pardoned by Donald Trump after receiving a life sentence, accepted the gift and joked about replacing the banana as it perishes. Sun had previously eaten the banana at a press conference in Hong Kong after purchasing it at auction.
The event highlights the convergence of the art world, cryptocurrency culture, and political patronage. Sun, a major investor in the Trump family's crypto venture, and Ulbricht, a Trump pardon recipient, embody the blurring lines between conceptual art, digital assets, and controversial figures. Cattelan's work, which challenges notions of value and permanence, finds a fitting parallel in the volatile and dematerialized world of cryptocurrency, making this stunt a commentary on wealth, spectacle, and the art market's embrace of crypto elites.