The rapper admitted that he “has never owned, and does not now own, a bitcoin account or any bitcoin.”
Reports emerged last month that 50 Cent accidentally earned millions of dollars a few years ago by allowing people to pay for his album 'Animal Ambition' using the internet currency. He reportedly earned 700 Bitcoin in sales which in today’s market would convert to $7.8 million.
50 Cent even bragged about his sudden Bitcoin wealth in an Instagram post which portrayed a screenshot of the article captioned “Not bad for a kid from South Side, I’m so proud of me” which has since been deleted.
However a Friday court document obtained by The Blast saw the rapper admit that he has never owned bitcoin. He said he went along with reports that he did because “As a general matter, so long as a press story is not irreparably damaging to my image or brand, I usually do not feel the need to publicly deny the reporting.”
He continued, “This is particular 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.”
Essentially then, he liked that the story made him look good.
He also said: “When I first became aware of the press reports on this matter, I made social media posts stating that “I forgot I did that” because I had in fact forgotten I was one of the first recording artists to accept bitcoin for online transactions. I did not publicly deny the reports that I held bitcoins because the press coverage was favorable and suggested that I had made millions of dollars as a result of my good business decision to accept bitcoin payments.”
However, having filed for bankruptcy less than three years ago, 50 Cent ultimately had to reveal that he does not own any bitcoin, admitting in bankruptcy documents that recent media reports have “falsely stated” that he made $8 million in bitcoin (none of which he had disclosed to the bankruptcy court).
In reality, he says, he has never owned any bitcoin “from 2014 to the present.” The 700 bitcoins he reportedly earned from album sales were converted to US dollars by a third party before 50 Cent or his affiliated companies could receive it.