Former CoinDesk exec calls out Justin Sun at Davos awards

By admin On Jan 25, 2025

Justin Sun was called out during a spin-off Davos award event by a former CoinDesk exec Michael Casey who was unhappy with how the Tron founder managed to get the crypto publisher to remove an article.

The Davos 2025 Most Influential Awards, handed out as part of the 2025 AI & Crypto Summit, piggybacked off CoinDesk’s own 2024 Most Influential list. Sun not only won one of the awards but was also the focus of its press release.

However, despite this, another winner, CoinDesk’s former Chief Content Officer, Casey, took the opportunity to rip into Sun and CoinDesk owner Bullish over its removal of an article covering Sun’s $6 million purchase of a piece of art that consists basically of a banana taped to a wall.

The article, titled “I Watched Justin Sun Eat the World’s Most Expensive Banana. I Don’t Get It” details journalist Callan Quinn’s experience of watching Sun devour the $6.2 million piece of fruit. Quinn called the event “ridiculous” and stated that he couldn’t comprehend the artistic merit behind the art piece.

Bullish, which bought CoinDesk last year for over $70 million, removed the December 2 opinion article after Sun objected.

The takedown contradicts CoinDesk’s editorial standards that state, “Neither Bullish nor any of its executives have any involvement in editorial or content decisions.”

A number of CoinDesk journalists subsequently attempted to get the article reuploaded — while highlighting the need for editorial independence — at a meeting with Bullish CEO Tom Farley and CoinDesk CEO Sara Stratoberdha.

During his acceptance speech, Casey said the Most Influential Awards are not necessarily an honor, and claimed that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler winning the award was “similar to Time magazine choosing someone like Adolf Hitler as their Person of the Year.”

He told the audience, “I cannot stand here in good conscience and not mention the fact that the editor-in-chief, the deputy editor-in-chief, and the executive chairman of CoinDesk were just fired by the new owners of CoinDesk, Bullish, because of the fact that Justin Sun, one of the recipients of the award, who says he’s honored to receive it, complained about an article.”

He added, “If we’re going to build a vibrant, powerful, meaningful technology in this space, we have to have the strength to stand up for what is right and we need good journalists to do so.

“So fight for good journalists, support them, and support the CoinDesk journalists who are going through one of the most difficult times I have ever had to go through in my journalism career.”

Sun is also influential with the Trump administration, buying his way into Donald Trump’s good books by investing $75 million into his crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLF). This may have influenced WFL to collectively buy over $10 million worth of Sun’s cryptocurrency Tron (TRX).

Whether or not he’s influential enough to sway a lawsuit from the SEC remains to be seen. In 2023 he was charged with securities fraud and market manipulation.

Trump has vetoed some criminal convictions and pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the $200 million drugs marketplace Silk Road. He also pardoned 1,500 people involved in the January 6 insurrection.

Earlier today, Sun shared pictures of his garish-looking award which features a large Bitcoin symbol. In typical Sun fashion, he wasn’t at the event and received his award elsewhere.

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