Update: TRON founder Justin Sun posted a tweet July 23rd showing himself un-detained in his apartment overlooking the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, and the price of TRON has now recovered about 8% since this article was originally penned.
We flies on the wall will just have to wait.
The TRON foundation tweeted yesterday that all parties have agreed to postpone TRON cryptocurrency network founder Justin Sun’s lunch with value-investing idol Warren Buffet.
According to the foundation, Sun is suffering from kidney stones.
TRON Foundation announces postponement of Warren Buffett lunch, press conferences after founder Justin Sun falls ill with kidney stones. Parties agreed to reschedule at a later date. @GLIDEsf @WarrenBuffett
— TRON DAO (@trondao) July 22, 2019
Sun paid $4.6 million USD in a charity auction for the right to dine with Buffet July 25th.
Buffet’s annual charity lunch typically takes place at the New York steak house Smith & Wollensky, but reports indicate that Buffet agreed to move the lunch to San Francisco, where TRON has offices.
The lunch benefits the Glide Foundation, a drop-in centre for the homeless and LGBTQ2S youth located in San Francisco’s tenderloin district.
Warren Buffet is wildly popular in China and Sun has been promoting the lunch heavily since his winning bid was announced.
Sun has widely billed the lunch as a chance to bring Buffet around on the topic of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which Buffet has famously referred to as “rat poison-squared,” and has decried in numerous interviews.
Terms of the lunch allow the winner to bring several guests and Sun has reportedly confirmed the attendance of Circle’s Jeremy Allaire, Huobi’s Chris Lee, eToro’s Yoni Assia and Litecoin creator Charlie Lee.
Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin reportedly declined to respond entirely to an invite from Sun and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, whose exchange is based in Malta, said the lunch was “too far.”
But Sun may have more than kidney stones to contend with. Chinese media outlet Caixin is claiming that Sun has been detained by the Chinese government and is unable to leave the country.
21st Century Business Herald is also reporting that Sun is detained because his “wave field” (TRON) blockchain is used for pornography and gambling transactions and is accessible to users in China, where cryptocurrencies are banned.
Several “CryptoTwitter” commenters are reporting rumours from Chinese social media app Weibo stating that Sun is under investigation for money laundering, fraud and for operating a Ponzi:
Weibo that Justin Sun was issued an exit ban by China's Ministry of State Security & is currently under investigation for money laundering, Ponzi fraud etc
How can Justin have lunch with Buffet when he isn't even allowed to leave China! pic.twitter.com/aUFsUEn1dn
— Santa Pumps⛽️ (@Edwardpumps) July 23, 2019
Another tweet suggests the rumour should be taken “with a grain of salt”:
tweet got deleted earlier, no idea if its real or not. pic.twitter.com/71OkqCRQJ3
— lastbattle🏴☠️🇹🇼🇯🇵 (@GreatGrandBear) July 23, 2019
The price of TRON tokens has dropped almost 20% in the last 24 hours.