Nas and Childish Gambino Are Bitcoin Believers
The Bitcoin Forum got a vicarious thrill over the weekend when crypto kiddies found out that Nasir Jones is now a Bitcoin investor. The news came courtesy of a PandoDaily article that admired the rapper's deal flow.
According to Pando, Nas and his manager Aymen Anthony Saleh, whose Twitter and AngelList handle is "dude_br0," have committed more than half their portfolio to startups and invested in 40 companies. That list includes Rap Genius, Fancy, and Coinbase, a company that lets you buy and store Bitcoin, which recently raised a $25 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz.
As a forum member named "gweedo" put it:
That is insane! This is why I don't have $25 million deals, cause I totally would be rapping illmatic and probably scare him away.
Nas and Saleh find potential targets the same way actor-capitalist Ashton Kutcher once did. Just follow the old money:
When they invested in Rap Genius's $15 million round of funding, they met the team at Andreessen Horowitz, who led the round. Since then, Andreessen Horowitz has passed Saleh and Nas a number of deals, including Crowdtilt, Coinbase, and Prism Skylabs. The experienced investors at Andreessen Horowitz taught Saleh and Nas how to evaluate a team and its startup idea; and Partner Ben Horowitz is "like family" to Nas and Saleh, according to Saleh.
(Horowitz also happens to be close friends with Nas' former manager Steve Stoute.)
But Nas isn't the only bold-faced name bitten by the Bitcoin bug. CBS Local reports that Mel B. and Childish Gambino (otherwise known as Donald Glover from Community) are believers. The X-Factor judge and former Spice Girl put out a press release about partnering with cloudhashing.com to accept Bitcoin as payment for her new single. Glover, on the other hand, seems to think we're still on the gold standard and that it should be replaced with Bitcoins:
"Yeah, I know a lot of people are skeptical, but I feel like if everything's going to live online, why not bitcoins?" Glover told Time recently. "Being backed by gold seems very old and nostalgic to me. Being backed to a bitcoin, which takes time to actually make and there's this equation that has to be done, that feels realer to me and makes more sense."
Attention the Fed: Don't forget to factor in a currency's realness, as perceived by celebrities.
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[Image via Getty]