Editor’s Note: Since the publish date of this article, news broke that 50 Cents never owned or invested in Bitcon.
While others are complaining about the fluctuating prices, 50 Cent is sitting pretty from his early bitcoin investments. According to TMZ, 50 Cent has made a staggering 7 million times his initial investment. In reference to the investment, he quotes on his Instagram, “Not Bad for a kid from South Side, I’m so proud of me.”
How did he have the wherewithal to make the investment? Well, he took a risk. Instead of only accepting cash for his album, Animal Ambition, he took payments in the form of bitcoin, which was then valued at around $662 per bitcoin. It currently fluctuates around the $10,000 mark per coin.
The site reported that Animal Ambition pulled in about 700 bitcoin in sales … over $400K. He never touched it and the value kept going up. Based on today’s value, it is believed that 50 is holding approximately $7 million and $8.5 million in value.
Additionally, a lot of other celebs have become engaged in the crypto world. Nipsey Hustle invested in an Amsterdam-based cryptocurrency company, Follow Coin; T.I. join FLiK, an end-to-end entertainment ecosystem that allows for creative projects to be funded, filmed, distributed, and paid for all within the FLiK framework, and Nas invested in the leading cryptocurrency exchange platform, Coinbase.
“[Bitcoin] will evolve into an industry as big, if not bigger, than the internet. My man Ben Horowitz really opened my eyes to that point. This isn’t of the internet age, bitcoin is its own age,” Nas told popular cryptocurrency site Coindesk. “Obviously challenges will arise from a security and privacy perspective, but the internet was the same way 20 years ago,” he continued.
We can’t all be 50, Nas, or T.I. but, it’s not too late to get in the game. The value has risen as high as $19,000 and with the concept still being extremely new, who knows where it will land. Additionally, as we stated before, there is a whole new market of coins out there but, as with all investments, be sure to do your research and only invest what you can afford to lose.