An article on Justin Sun’s “ridiculous” banana-buying stunt published by CoinDesk was taken down by the crypto news outlet after Sun complained about the tone of the piece. 

Fortune reports that an objection from Sun’s team prompted an intervention from CoinDesk’s owner, crypto exchange Bullish. 

Bullish removed the December 2 opinion article titled “I Watched Justin Sun Eat the World’s Most Expensive Banana. I Don’t Get It.” A number of CoinDesk journalists subsequently attempted to get it reuploaded — while highlighting the need for editorial independence — at a meeting with Bullish CEO Tom Farley and CoinDesk CEO Sara Stratoberdha.

While the article is viewable on Yahoo, it’s currently not on the CoinDesk website. 

Read more: Justin Sun directed wash trading scheme from his US apartment, SEC claims

It was written by Callan Quinn and details his experience watching Sun eat the $6.2 million art piece. To recap, eating the banana doesn’t diminish the piece in any way. Quinn called the event “ridiculous,” and said that he couldn’t comprehend the artistic merit behind the art piece itself. 

What may have rubbed Sun the wrong way was the inclusion of last year’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charge that accused him of secondary market wash trading, fraud, and other securities law violations. Sun is fighting this case. 

In addition, Quinn touched on Sun threatening legal action against news outlets that are reporting on the use of his Tron blockchain by terrorists. Reuters reported that Tron is popular with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah, and that Israel’s counter-terrorist agencies have frozen 186 Tron wallets since July 2021. 

CoinDesk editor resigned this week

Bullish bought CoinDesk last year for over $70 million and said it would operate CoinDesk as an “independent subsidiary.” It appointed the executive editor of the Washington Post, Matt Murray, as the chair of CoinDesk’s editorial committee.

However, Fortune reports that Murray resigned on Monday. He declined Fortune’s request for comment. 

The crypto exchange has a 24-hour volume of $2.5 billion and the 94 spot on CoinGecko’s top crypto exchange list. Tron was also a sponsor of CoinDesk’s Consensus event and was picked as one of CoinDesk’s most influential figures in crypto. 

For the record, Protos also thinks that Sun’s banana stunt was ridiculous and that he’s basically paid $6 million to have to replace a piece of fruit every seven to 10 days. Our newsroom is, however, completely independent, so we’ll be keeping our Sun articles up for the rest of time.

Protos has reached out to Bullish, CoinDesk, Matt Murray, and Callan Quinn for comment.  

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post Justin Sun complaint leads to CoinDesk removing banana article appeared first on Protos.

Bullish, the cryptocurrency exchange funded by Block One, has reportedly purchased CoinDesk in an all-cash deal with undisclosed terms.

This comes after a previously reported deal with Matthew Roszak and Peter Vessenes appears to have fallen apart.

CoinDesk’s current parent company, Digital Currency Group, has been facing a series of problems, including civil lawsuits that allege fraud. 

What is Bullish?

Bullish is a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2021 with an investment from Block One. Block One was the firm that conducted a purported $4 billion dollar ICO for the EOS token.

Block One ended up paying a $24 million fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission for selling unregistered securities.

Bullish initially intended to go public using a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation (SPAC) at a valuation of $9 billion, which included approximately $6 billion in assets that it received from Block One. This was eventually called off following a failed settlement between Block One and EOS investors. 

Read more: Who is CoinDesk’s likely buyer Matthew Roszak?

One of Bullish’s key distinguishing features was that “Bullish cross-hashes to the EOS Public Blockchain to facilitate externally verifiable state integrity.” Protos was unable to find any information on Bullish’s website or support documents about how one would go about using information on the EOS blockchain to externally verify state integrity and has reached out to Bullish to see if they can provide additional information on how this process works. 

Tom Farley, the CEO of Bullish and former president of the New York Stock Exchange, stated that the firm intends to operate CoinDesk as an “independent subsidiary,” maintain the current management team, and will form a new editorial committee led by former Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Matt Murray.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post A look into Bullish, the crypto exchange buying CoinDesk appeared first on Protos.