50 Cent becomes accidental Bitcoin millionaire with forgotten investment

50 Cent’s gamble on Bitcoin has paid off handsomely after the rapper discovered his investment in the cryptocurrency is now worth millions.

The American performer and businessman, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, admitted he had forgotten he even owned some of the volatile cryptocurrency.

He let fans purchase his album Animal Ambition for just a fraction of a Bitcoin in 2014, when its price hovered around $662 (£460), with the rapper making 700 Bitcoin from sales.

The Bitcoin has remained untouched in his bank account for the past four years, reports say, and is now worth millions.

Bitcoin’s price exploded to a high of above $19,000 (£13,000) in December last year but has fallen to just above the $11,000 mark in the early weeks of 2018.

Despite the recent price fall, 50 Cent’s Bitcoin stash today is worth between $7m (£5m) and $8.5m (£6m), TMZ reports.

50 Cent confirmed the profitable investment return on social media, tweeting: “Not bad for a kid from South Side, I’m so proud of me.”

He later added: “Ima keep it real, I forgot I did that s--t lol.”

The rapper filed for bankruptcy in 2015 after being told by a court to pay $5m in damages for posting someone else’s sex tape online.

50 Cent joins the list of Bitcoin winners like Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the American twins who used an $11m Facebook payout to become the world's first Bitcoin billionaires.

One of the biggest losers from Bitcoin remains Welsh IT technician James Howells, who accidentally threw away bitcoin worth $100m.