Martin Shkreli’s Wu-Tang album sold for $ 4 million to Crypto PleasrDAO

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PleasrDAO, a group of 74 crypto collectors and artists, turned out to be the buyer of a unique Wu-Tang Clan album that was previously owned by convicted fraudster Martin Shkreli. The group says they paid $ 4 million for the album.

The Pharma Bro bought the single copy of “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” at an online auction in 2015 for $ 2 million. The government seized his assets in 2018 after being convicted of defrauding investors in 2017 and sentenced to seven years in prison.

As part of a $ 7.4 million forfeiture judgment, the album was sold in July. The buyer remained anonymous until PleasrDAO’s announcement on Wednesday.

The two-disc, 31-track album is contained in an intricately carved nickel-silver case and includes a leather-bound book. PleasrDAO – whose last three letters stand for “decentralized autonomous organization” – paid for it using cryptocurrency linked to the US dollar.

PleasrDAO, which officially acquired the album on September 10, told the New York Times that it plans to make the album widely available to the public for listening if Wu-Tang’s RZA and producer Cilvaringz give them permission. . (The album was sold to Shkreli on the condition that it would not be released for public consumption until the year 2103, 88 years after the original sale date; these restrictions still apply for now.)

The purchase is part of PleasrDAO’s larger goal of collecting digital creations from an “antiquated and abusive economic system,” the Times reported.

“This album at its inception was kind of a protest against the rent-seeking middleman, the people who take an artist’s part,” Johnson said. “Crypto shares this same philosophy very much.”

Johnson added: “We think there is something we can do with this piece, to allow it to be shared and ideally partly owned by the fans and anyone in the world.”

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