Ken Griffin, hedge fund billionaire, outbids crypto enthusiasts to buy copy of U.S. Constitution for $43 million

The Citadel CEO said he will loan the document to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., where it will be on display to the public for free.

The auction drew wide attention thanks to the online campaign by crypto enthusiasts to crowdfund a bid for the document. More than 17,000 people joined the effort, according to Sotheby's, raising more than $40 million worth of the digital token Ethereum in a matter of days for an artifact that the auction house had valued at between $15 million and $20 million.

"The U.S. Constitution is a sacred document that enshrines the rights of every American and all those who aspire to be," Griffin said in a statement released by Sotheby's. "That is why I intend to ensure that this copy of our Constitution will be available for all Americans and visitors to view and appreciate in our museums and other public spaces."

The artifact is one of 13 copies of the founding document that survived from a series of about 500 printed for Constitutional Convention delegates to consider in Philadelphia in 1787. Its sale to Griffin set a world auction record for a document, Sotheby's said.

Bidders for Griffin and the crypto collective squared off in an eight-minute battle on Thursday night. The contest made for riveting viewing through an online stream of the event, though it wasn't clear which representative in the room at Sotheby's was bidding on behalf of the investors - or whom they were bidding against.

The crypto group - which called itself ConstitutionDAO, referring to its self-governing structure as a "decentralized autonomous organization" that allows participants to vote on major decisions - claimed a kind of victory in defeat. The effort "still made history" as "the largest crowdfund for a physical object that we are aware of - crypto or fiat," the group said in a statement. It had also planned to put the Constitution on public display.

"We have educated an entire cohort of people around the world - from museum curators and art directors to our grandmothers asking us what eth is when they read about us in the news," the group said. It said it would refund all contributions.

Griffin already boasts an expansive collection of multimillion-dollar artworks. He spent $100 million last year to acquire Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1982 painting "Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump," now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. He also owns works by Paul Cézanne, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Jasper Johns.

The financier has also been a prolific Republican donor, contributing more than $67 million in the 2020 election cycle alone, mostly to GOP candidates and causes, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.