There was a time when celebrity side hustles were rather more predictable. A fragrance range, perhaps. A book deal, though one suspected the actual writing had been subcontracted. A brief and ill-advised stint in the restaurant business, followed by a quiet financial retreat. But in the last decade a new type of investment has captured the imaginations (and, more importantly, the bank balances) of the rich and famous—cryptocurrency.
Some entered the space early, seeing in Bitcoin and Ethereum not just a speculative bet but the foundations of an entirely new financial system. Others arrived later, lured by the astonishing price surges and the promise of returns that made traditional investments look like pocket money. And then of course there were those who embraced it with all the sincerity of a pantomime villain, promoting dubious schemes with wide grins before vanishing just as the value plummeted.
It’s a world that thrives on spectacle, a quality that may explain its natural appeal to celebrities. The rise of cryptocurrency has been equal parts high drama and high finance, promising fortunes to those who get in early and a cautionary tale to those who don’t time their exit quite so well. But as with all things involving wealth and influence some have played the game with an almost unsettling brilliance—emerging not just richer but rebranded as financial visionaries.
The Pioneers: When Celebrities Saw It First
One of the first to realise that Bitcoin wasn’t just an obscure fascination for computer scientists was 50 Cent. Back in 2014, when most people were still debating whether cryptocurrency was real money or some elaborate tech prank, he made the unusual decision to accept Bitcoin as payment for his album Animal Ambition. At the time, the earnings were modest—around 700 Bitcoin, then worth about $400,000. But by the time he found the wallet in 2018, that stash had inflated to somewhere in the region of $7 million. An accidental fortune but a fortune nonetheless.
And then there’s Ashton Kutcher—who for reasons only known to himself has been investing in technology for most of the last 20 years. Before most people had even worked out how to set up a crypto wallet, he was ploughing funds into Bitcoin and Ethereum and backing companies like BitPay, a payment processor that aimed to bring cryptocurrency into the mainstream. Unlike the more opportunistic entrants, he’s been involved not just in trading but in advocating for blockchain technology itself—once used a guest appearance on Ellen to casually donate millions in Ripple (XRP) to charity, presumably leaving daytime TV viewers in confusion.
The Opportunists: NFTs, Memecoins and Questionable Decisions
If the early celebrity crypto investors were pretty hands off, just buying and holding like patient gamblers, the next wave were rather more… interactive. The advent of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) was like a neon sign that said Make Money Here for many celebrities.
Take Paris Hilton for instance—she’s always been better at branding than she gets credit for. Long before most people had a clue what an NFT was, she was already selling digital art for millions, positioning herself as a Web3 evangelist. Snoop Dogg was even more enthusiastic—claiming to be the secret identity behind ‘Cozomo de’ Medici’, a prolific NFT collector and launching his own metaverse project, the ‘Snoopverse’ (because of course).
And then there were those who entered the wilder corners of the market—celebrity backed coins that promised the world but delivered less. Floyd Mayweather lent his name to a coin called Centra Tech which turned out to be a scam and Kim Kardashian was fined by the SEC for promoting EthereumMax, a coin that had nothing to do with Ethereum and a lot to do with making its founders rich. The lesson as always is that while celebrity endorsements can be persuasive, they don’t guarantee financial wisdom.
Is It Too Late?
Which brings us to the question that’s been haunting those who watched Bitcoin rocket past $60,000 and thought—should I have done something about that? The answer as unsatisfying as it is, is yes and no.
Yes, in the sense that the days of just buying Bitcoin for pocket change and watching it turn into a fortune are over. Those who got in early had the benefit of time and obscurity—the ability to accumulate before the world caught on. For the average person today, the idea of becoming a crypto millionaire overnight is about as likely as being discovered at the bus stop and offered a leading role in a Hollywood blockbuster.
But no—because while the extreme speculative upside may be over, the crypto market is still moving. Ethereum is now a foundation of decentralized finance, offering staking, lending and yield farming opportunities that didn’t exist a few years ago. New projects pop up all the time, some good (others not so much) and institutional adoption of digital assets is still growing.
If you still want to get in, the key is to not approach it with the excitement of someone who thinks they’ll double their money by next Tuesday but with the curiosity of someone who wants to understand the tech and its uses. There are ways to make money with cryptocurrency—through investment, blockchain projects or even for the very brave, NFTs. But as always, success favours those who do the research rather than those who follow the crowd.
