US musician, 50 Cent, suddenly a Bitcoin millionaire

Rapper 50 Cent has just realised he’s become a bitcoin millionaire after discovering a long-forgotten hoard of the cryptocurrency.

Back in 2014, 50 Cent became the first artist to take bitcoin as payment for his album Animal Ambition.

He received more than 700 bitcoins through album sales, which he had forgotten about until recently, according to celebrity news site TMZ.

With today’s price of between $10,000 and $12,000, 50 Cent has about $7m to $8m in the digital currency. Back in 2014, one bitcoin was worth well below $1,000.

In a post on Instagram, the artist confirmed the news, saying: “Not bad for a kid from the South Side. I’m so proud of me.”

With the value of bitcoin rocketing up over 2017, many have gone searching for lost login information and old hard drives full of bitcoin, but not everyone has been successful.

In December, one unlucky Welsh IT worker who was an early investor in bitcoin realised he’d thrown out his old computer with the ownership codes to 7,500 bitcoins.