Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon A Time In Shaolin Album Now Owned By Cryptocurrency Collective After $4 Million Bid

After being owned by a couple of Wu-Tang fans, their special copy of their Once Upon A Time in Shaolin is now owned by cryptocurrency collection PleasrDAO. According to the New York Times, PleasrDAO acquired the album from its previous owner for $4 million on September 10 and has been keeping it in a “vault” in New York.

PleasrDAO’s Jamis Johnson spoke to the New York Times about the purchase. We believe that we can do something with this piece to enable it to be shared and ideally owned in part by fans and anyone in the world.” Johnson continued to say “This album at its inception was a kind of protest against rent-seeking middlemen, people who are taking a cut away from the artist. Crypto very much shares that same ethos. The album itself is kind of the O.G. NFT.”

The limited album, which was recorded in secret over a six-year course, was auctioned for $2 million to “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli in 2015, who was then forced to forfeit the album along with other assets worth $7.4 million after being found guilty of securities fraud, which he was sentenced seven years for. Shaolin was then temporarily in the hands of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions until it was sold to an undisclosed buyer in July of this year by the U.S. Government.