Last month, 50 Cent reportedly “forgot” about a bitcoin collection said to be worth millions. Now he claims the secret stash never existed.
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The rapper, who recently filed for bankruptcy, never owned the cryptocurrency, according to court documents obtained by The Blast. He said media outlets "falsely stated" his earnings, but he didn't "feel the need to publicly deny" the stories since it did not "irreparably damage" his image.
“This is particularly true when I feel the press report in question is favorable to my image or brand, even if the report is based on a misunderstanding of the facts or contains outright falsehoods,” he said.
In January, TMZ wrote that 50 Cent, born Curtis Jackson, was the first rapper to accept bitcoin as payment for his 2014 "Animal Ambition" album. Today, the 700 coins from the sales would have had a value $11,000 each, which would have brought the musician's total to about $7 million.
“Not Bad for a kid from South Side, I'm so proud of me," 50 Cent wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post of TMZ’s article, where he also commented, “I’m a keep it real. I forgot I did that.”
While the documents state he did receive some of the currency, estimated to actually be just 6 or 7 bitcoin, a third party company handled the transaction and immediately converted it into U.S. dollars. That means he only raked in about a couple thousand dollars.
"When I first became aware of the press reports on this matter, I made social media posts stating that 'I forgot I did that,’” he said, “because I had in fact forgotten I was one of the first recording artists to accept bitcoin for online transactions.”
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