50 Cent allowed fans to buy his 2014 album Animal Ambition using Bitcoin earning him MILLIONS
RAPPER 50 CENT made a fortune when he released Animal Ambition in 2014 after deciding to accept bitcoin as payment.
Scores of people scoffed at the rapper’s decision to embrace the volatile digital currency but less than four years later, the 42-year-old is laughing all the way to the bank.
At the time Fiddy ended up with around 700 bitcoin from those who decided to pay for Animal Ambition with the cryptocurrency.
Back then, that equated to around £400,000 because one bitcoin was worth $811.
But now the rapper, real name Curtis Jackson, is sitting on a whopping £7 million thanks to his foresight.
And the rapper’s bitcoin gamble isn’t even the best part of the story.
When TMZ broke the news earlier this week that he was now sitting on a bitcoin fortune, the star took to Instagram to admit he didn’t even remember taking the punt.
“Not bad for a kid from South Side, I’m so proud of me. LOL,” he wrote.
And in a later comment added: “I’m a keep it real I forgot I did that s**t. Lol.”
Jackson also gloated about his new-found fortune on Twitter.
In a Reddit Q&A at the time, Jackson said he was accepting the cryptocurrency to keep up with the times.
“Technology is what’s changing the business gotta get with it,” he wrote. “I take money no matter if its coins or dollars.”
But considering how often and violently the bitcoin market fluctuates, Jackson might be gearing up to leave it soon.
Earlier this month, the cryptocurency market lost $206 billion overnight in what traders described as a “cryptocalypse”, with bitcoin heading back towards its $US10,000 milestone first reached last November.
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Whether or not Jackson decides to bail out of bitcoin, it definitely isn’t the first successful business venture the rapper has been a part of.
The 42-year-old is involved in artist and talent management, record, television and film production. He also has major stakes in a number of beverage industries and footwear and apparel companies.
Jackson is also a licensed boxing promoter, has purchased an equity stake in a platinum, palladium and iridium mine in South Africa and has starred in a number of movies. He also owns his own audio company SMS Audio.
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