Hip-hop legend Nas could cash in big time on bitcoin, potentially raking in a $100 million or more when Coinbase gets listed on Nasdaq and goes public.
“If I Ruled The World” artist Nas (born Nasir Jones) was wise enough to make an early investment in Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange expected to reach more than $100 billion in valuation when its COIN stock lists on April 14.
In 2013, Nas’ investment firm, QueensBridge Venture Partners, invested in Coinbase’s Series B round, which raised $25 million, Nasdaq reported.
Coinbase was valued at the time at about $143 million, according to PitchBook.
QueensBridge owns about 99,329 Coinbase shares on the low end or 496,642 on the high end. With Coinbase shares trading around $350 each in the private secondary market, Nas and his investment partner could net between $34.76 million and $173.8 million, according to research by Coindesk.
“The Nas news shows just how far Coinbase’s public listing will ripple across the world of venture capital, with everyone from Wall Street veterans to A-list celebrities all standing to win big when the chips fall this week,” Nasdaq reported.
Dan Runcie, who who founded hip-hop business newsletter Trapital, tweeted, “When Nas invested in Coinbase in 2013, it was valued at $143M. Coinbase is now worth $100B. Let’s assume Nas invested $500K. Even if his stake has diluted 50%, that investment would now be worth $175M.”
Runcie added, “Back in 2001, Nas said ‘this is Nasdaq dough’ on Got Urself A Gun. Foreshadowing. He was talking about his future exits the whole time y’all!”
QueensBridge has been deep in tech investments. It also backed Robinhood in 2013 and later Lyft and Dropbox. It makes early-stage investments of between $100,000 and $500,000, according to Nas’ QueensBridge co-founder Anthony Saleh.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 74: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin returns for a new season of the GHOGH podcast to discuss Bitcoin, bubbles, and Biden. He talks about the risk factors for Bitcoin as an investment asset including origin risk, speculative market structure, regulatory, and environment. Are broader financial markets in a massive speculative bubble?
Nas also has invested in Pillpack, RIng, Casper, Genius, and Pluto, according to Runcie.
Nas tops the list of celebrity investors who have participated in the most funding rounds with 188 rounds, Runcie wrote in Trapital. “He’s a volume shooter with a high-efficiency rating.”
