Most people don’t really understand Bitcoin or how it works, allowing a small handful of those who do know how it works to inexplicably make a whole bunch of money by…doing something related to computers. Apparently, 50 Cent is one of these people who somehow made a bunch of money using Bitcoin—which apparently just exist digitally and are not created by jamming dimes into a computer’s USB ports—with TMZ claiming that he could be sitting on somewhere around $7 million in these space bucks.
50 Cent accepted Bitcoin payments for his 2014 album Animal Ambition, selling it for a fraction of a single coin back when the things (which, again, are not physical things) were worth around $600 each, and TMZ says he made about $400,000 in Bitcoin sales. He still has those Bitcoins according to the site’s sources, and thanks to the meteoric rise in value that this cryptocurrency has enjoyed lately, that collection should now be worth between $7 million and $8.5 million. Of course, the problem with Bitcoin (other than the fact that it may cause you to ruin your USB ports by stupidly cramming dimes into them) is that the value fluctuates like crazy—so it could be worth nothing by the time you read this sentence.
Dedicated 50 Cent fans may be wondering why he declared bankruptcy in 2015 if he was sitting on this virtual fortune, but the reason for that is probably that these Bitcoins hadn’t properly matured at that point. They were still just comparatively worthless whatevers instead of arbitrarily valuable whatevers like they are now. TMZ suggests that 50 Cent should cash out and get his computer money while he still can, but we think he should stick to it. After all, nobody can really say whether or not his supply will be worth $10 million each in a few minutes or days or years, so the sensible thing for 50 Cent to do is simply wait and assume that he’ll eventually be the new richest person ever.