Justin Sun’s team is reported to have complained to Bullish, the owner of CoinDesk, about an article detailing Sun’s consumption of the world’s most expensive banana. Sources indicate that Bullish then asked CoinDesk to take down the piece.
A Fortune report on Dec. 18 stated that the Tron founder’s team approached Bullish, a crypto exchange that bought CoinDesk for $75 million last year, to demand the removal of the article about Sun eating Maurizio Cattelan’s $6.2 million banana artwork. The article, published in late November with the title “I Watched Justin Sun Eat the World’s Most Expensive Banana. I Don’t Get It,” covered the act’s context, the banana’s significance, and Sun’s legal issues with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Inside sources told Fortune that Sun’s team disliked the article’s tone, leading Bullish to request its removal. This was met with resistance from the CoinDesk editorial staff, who asked for the article to be reinstated with an editor’s note at a meeting last week.
A search by crypto.news found the article missing from CoinDesk’s site but still available on Yahoo News. The CoinDesk article also noted Sun’s legal team’s history of threatening news outlets over reports suggesting the Tron blockchain was misused for illegal activities. Tron is a major sponsor of CoinDesk’s Consensus conference series.
Bullish CEO Tom Farley, CoinDesk’s editor-in-chief Kevin Reynolds, and a spokesperson for Justin Sun have not responded to Fortune’s requests for comment. Matt Murray, chair of CoinDesk’s editorial committee, resigned on Dec. 16 and declined to comment.
In November 2023, Bullish acquired CoinDesk from Digital Currency Group, raising concerns about editorial independence. Matt Murray, former Editor-in-Chief of The Wall Street Journal, was appointed Chair of CoinDesk’s Editorial Committee after the acquisition.
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