The 34-year-old trader chomped down on the banana in front of dozens of journalists and influencers after giving a speech hailing the work as “iconic” and drew parallels between conceptual art and cryptocurrency.

At one of Hong Kong’s priciest hotels, Sun said, “It’s much better than other bananas.” After getting his first taste Sun, who was born in China, said, “It’s really quite good.”

Titled Comedian, the conceptual work created by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York last week, with Sun among seven bidders, The guardian reported.

The Chinese trader said he felt “disbelief” in the first 10 seconds after he won the bid, before realising “this could become something big”. In the 10 seconds after that, he decided he would eat the banana.

“Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history,” he said on Friday.

The debut of the edible creation at the 2019 Art Basel show in Miami Beach sparked controversy and raised questions about whether it should be considered art – Cattelan’s stated aim.

“Most of its objects and ideas exist as (intellectual property) and on the internet, as opposed to something physical,” he said.

He disclosed a $30m investment in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency project backed by the US president-elect, Donald Trump.

Last year, Sun was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with offering and selling unregistered securities in relation to his crypto project Tron. The case is ongoing.

At a function room at the Peninsula hotel in Hong Kong, two men dressed as auction house staff stood in front of a featureless wall with the yellow banana offering the only splash of colour.

The banana was reportedly bought for less than a dollar from a fruit stall on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, staffed by Shah Alam, who works for $12 an hour.