JAY-Z and Jack Dorsey Announce Bitcoin Fund

JAY-Z is getting into the bitcoin business.

After launching a cannabis brand, the hip-hop mogul has teamed up with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to establish a bitcoin development fund initially focused in Africa and India.

In a tweet on Friday (Feb. 12), Dorsey announced that the duo is putting 500 bitcoin, which is currently worth $23.6 million, in an endowment called ₿trust. The fund will be set up as a blind irrevocable trust and neither he nor JAY-Z will give any direction to the team.

JAY-Z/@S_C_ and I are giving 500 BTC to a new endowment named ₿trust to fund #Bitcoin development, initially focused on teams in Africa & India. It’ll be set up as a blind irrevocable trust, taking zero direction from us. We need 3 board members to start: https://t.co/L4mRBryMJe

— jack (@jack) February 12, 2021

₿trust is looking to hire three board members, and the company’s mission is to “make bitcoin the internet’s currency,” according to a job application.

In December, it was reported that JAY-Z had been in talks to sell his music streaming service TIDAL to Dorsey’s digital-payment company, Square Inc.

Dorsey has maintained a close friendship with JAY-Z and Beyoncé. They were photographed in the Hamptons in August and then again in November in Hawaii. In April, Dorsey’s #startsmall partnered with Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD foundation to provide $6 million in funding to organizations providing mental wellness services during the coronavirus crisis.

Last month, JAY-Z announced that he was investing $10 million into a fund for minority-owned cannabis startups following the launch of his own cannabis brand Monogram.