Sign up for The Media Today, CJR’s daily newsletter.

In late November, a work of art called Comedian, by Maurizio Cattelan, sold at auction for just over six million dollars. Comedian is better known by its description: a banana duct-taped to a wall. The buyer was Justin Sun, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur and major investor in World Liberty Financial, Donald Trump’s digital-asset company. Two years ago, Sun had made headlines when he and his firm, Tron, which specializes in cryptocurrency- and blockchain-based entertainment, were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with fraud and other crimes. (The case was recently put on hold by the SEC, the Trump…