American rap legend Nasir Jones, known professionally as Nas, has been one of the early adopters of cryptocurrency and even used his art to market the industry to the masses.
What happened: On Apr. 30, 2021, a track titled "Sorry Not Sorry" was dropped, featuring Nas along with DJ Khaled, Jay-Z, James Fauntleroy, and Beyoncé.
The song showed Nas rapping the lines, "I'm coin-based, basically crypto-currency scarface. Join us, there's gotta be more of us," in what was a clear reference to his stakes in Coinbase Global Inc. COIN—the cryptocurrency exchange that went public just two weeks before.
Nas invested in the company through his venture capital firm QueensBridge Venture Partners in 2013, a year after the trading platform was launched.
Since its direct listing, the stock has been closely tied to the price movement of Bitcoin BTC/USD, the world's biggest cryptocurrency.
An investment of $1000 in Bitcoin when the track was released on Apr. 30, 2021, would have fetched 0.017351 units of the cryptocurrency.
Today, one BTC is valued at $63,659.60, meaning that the total value of the stash would be worth $1102.32 today, reflecting a 10.2% increase.
Why It Matters: Nas has been a visionary Bitcoiner and once famously said," “Bitcoin will evolve into an industry as big, if not bigger, than the internet.”
The hip-hop star, whose albums like “Illmatic” have been chartbusters, purportedly bought the apex cryptocurrency when it was valued at $500, and continues to hold on to his stash, according to well-known Bitcoin journalist Pete Rizzo.
Apart from Nas, Grammy award-winning rapper Eminem referenced Bitcoin in the song “Not Alike” from the best-selling album “Kamikaze."
Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $63,684.21, up 2.76% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro. Shares of Coinbase closed 4.79% higher during Friday's session, mirroring the apex cryptocurrency's rise on the day.
Photo Courtesy: Jamie Lamor Thompson On Shutterstock.com
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