Call it the ultimate come up. Three years after filing for bankruptcy, rapper 50 Cent has just made a rather astonishing discovery: he accidentally amassed a Bitcoin fortune worth US$8 million.
Hit rewind. It’s 2014. No one but your nerdiest friends are talking about cryptocurrency. A single Bitcoin is worth US$657. Curtis Jackson III releases his fifth studio album, Animal Ambition, and makes the then-unconventional decision to accept Bitcoin for it. The sales stunt reportedly earns him around 700 Bitcoins, or a respectable US$460,000 at the 2014 value. Then he forgets about it.
Cut to January 2018. Everyone is talking about crypto, and Fiddy’s paltry half-mil has ballooned into nearly US$8 million.
The rapper took to Instagram to confirm his windfall. “Not Bad for a kid from South Side, I’m so proud of me,” he wrote in a now-deleted post.
His not-so-humblebrag was followed by one of the single most amazing/infuriating comments we’ve ever seen: “I’m a keep it real I forgot I did that s***. Lol.”
It’s not yet known what become of 50 Cent’s unexpected digital riches. Whether the rapper cashed out or is HODLing in hopes of even greater fortune remains to be seen, but crypto nerds have found a new hero who got rich and didn’t die trying.
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