Rapper 50 Cent, also known as Curtis Jackson III, has reportedly amassed a small fortune in cryptocurrency.
Jackson racked up about 700 bitcoins after agreeing to accept it as an alternative form of payment for his 2014 album “Animal Ambition,” according to TMZ. That stake is now worth over $7 million.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, the 42-year-old took to social media to congratulate himself. In a post referencing the original TMZ report, he wrote, “Not Bad for a kid from South Side, I’m so proud of me.” He followed up with an additional comment saying, “I’m a keep it real. I forgot I did that s—.”
The self-congratulations continued on Twitter.
The pat on the back is well deserved. At a time when bitcoin was only worth about $660 and yet to go mainstream, Jackson took a risk: He agreed to accept it as a form of payment. In a June 3, 2014, Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) on the same day his album was released, the hip hop mogul revealed that he made the decision in an attempt to “stay with the times.”
The bitcoin that came in would have amounted to around $450,000 then. Since rising in value to around $11,200 per bitcoin according to Coinbase, that same stake would be worth closer to $7.8 million now.
A request for comment by CNBC Make It was not immediately returned by Jackson’s publicist.
It’s not the first business move by Jackson that has resulted in a large windfall. A sale of the rapper’s stake in VitaminWater netted him about $100 million after taxes when Coca-Cola purchased the beverage brand in 2007.
Jackson’s financial history, however, is not entirely comprised of wins. The hip hip mogul filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015, claiming that his liabilities ($32.5 million) outweighed his assets ($24.8 million) by nearly $8 million. His case was discharged in 2017 after Jackson paid a total of $22 million to settle his debts, according to the Hartford Courant.
It’s not clear if the rapper made famous by his debut album “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” has any plans to cash out or whether he’ll test his luck by continuing to hold.
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