Crypto founder paying $4.57 million for lunch with Warren Buffett wants to change his hatred of bitcoin
- Justin Sun says he may not be able to change Warren Buffett's opinion on bitcoin in a three-hour lunch.
- However, Sun hopes to offer the Berkshire Hathaway chief a different opinion. "I want him to learn what the younger generations are doing."
- Sun says he's a believer and a fan of Buffett and his "long-term value investing strategy," adding he wanted to pay Buffett "back for his inspiration."
Justin Sun, the blockchain entrepreneur who paid a record $4.57 million for lunch with Warren Buffett, told CNBC on Tuesday he wants to change the billionaire investor's mind on hating bitcoin.
Sun, founder of cryptocurrency Tron and CEO of file-sharing company BitTorrent, had the highest bid in the 20 years of the charity auction. Proceeds go to the Glide Foundation to help the homeless in San Francisco, where BitTorrent is located.
Winning the auction allows Sun to invite seven guests, and he said he's going to bring other cryptocurrency industry leaders to the lunch in New York. But he told CNBC he's not sure who he's going to be bring yet.
Sun said he's a believer and a fan of Buffett and his "long-term value investing strategy." He added that he wants to pay Buffett "back for his inspiration."
However, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO is not a fan of bitcoin. In the past, he's called it "rat poison squared."
When asked for comment on the lunch, Buffett laughed and told CNBC's Becky Quick that he was looking forward to it. The date for the lunch isn't set.
Sun admitted on "Squawk Box" he knows he won't change Buffett's mind in a three-hour lunch, but he hopes to offer him a different opinion and show him "how much progress we've made" in the past 10 years in the cryptocurrency industry. "I want him to learn what the younger generations are doing," Sun added.
While some past winners have chosen to stay anonymous, Ted Weschler — later hired as a Berkshire investment manager — and Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn were winners of the auction in previous years.
— CNBC's Kate Rooney contributed to this report.