His coins are now worth nearly $8.5 million
Curtis Jackson, who goes by the stage name 50 Cent, is the latest in a long list of people who are now rich off of Bitcoin they forgot they owned. He released the album Animal Ambition back in 2014 and was one of the first music artists to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. First reported by TMZ, this turned out to be one of the best financial decisions he has ever made.
The album came out well before Bitcoin gained the popularity it has today so there weren't too many people with Bitcoin willing to spend it on his album. He took the chance and it ended up paying off dozens of times over.
Album sales were around 700 BTC which at the time was around $450,000. At the current market rate of about $12,000, this is now worth nearly $8.5 million. In a social media comment he said, "Not bad for a kid from South Side, I’m so proud of me." He also posted the following tweet:
"A little bitcoin anyone? LOL. l know l make you sick but excuse me...I’m getting to the bag 💰 #denofthieves "
@50cent
There are horror stories of early Bitcoin investors accidentally throwing away hard drives that are now worth millions or forgetting their login credentials. 50 Cent was lucky to remember his password because due to the nature of cryptocurrencies, it would have been lost forever otherwise.