Call him the ultimate hodler. After being one of the first musicians to accept Bitcoin all the way back in 2014, Rapper 50 Cent (a.k.a. Curtis Jackson) appears to have accumulated a small fortune in the volatile digital currency.
As TMZ first reported, and the man himself seems to have confirmed, 50 Cent left his Bitcoin sales untouched until rediscovering them some time recently. At the time, he reportedly raked in around 700 bitcoins in album sales for his fifth album, Animal Ambition, which launched in June 2014. TechCrunch reached out to confirm the numbers and will update when we hear back.
On the date of the album’s launch, one bitcoin was worth $657. If reports of his 700 bitcoin haul are accurate, then 50 made around $460,000 in sales at the time — not bad.
Today, that same amount of bitcoin is worth $7,770,000.
50 appeared to confirm the news in an Instagram caption: “Not Bad for a kid from South Side, I’m so proud of me,” followed by the comment “I’m a keep it real I forgot I did that shit. Lol.” A later Instagram post showed bitcoin imagery with the caption “all moneys is good money over here.”
In 2015, 50 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and restructured his finances, agreeing to pay off $23 million in debt with a five-year plan. Last year, he reportedly finished paying off the $23 million early after receiving some money in a settlement. Back in 2011, the rapper debuted a set of headphones marketed with his personal brand and became the CEO of his own audio company, SMS Audio.
50 may have stumbled onto his crypto-millions, but that doesn’t diminish his early vision to support the then still fairly obscure digital currency. Still, cryptocurrency fortunes can change at a moment’s notice. We’d be curious to know if he plans to cash out or live that #hodler life.
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