Hidden Cash was a 2014 multi-city project founded by Jason Buzi and Yan Budman using the
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
account of the same name.
[
]
On May 22, 2014, Hidden Cash began hiding money in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
and tweeting out clues using the handle. Followers were encouraged to tweet a photo of themselves with the money they find, and Hidden Cash retweeted them. Within a week, the group expanded to Los Angeles, and the account gained national and international media attention, and hundreds of thousands of followers.
Over the course of about 10 weeks, Hidden Cash did money drops in California cities including San Francisco,
Oakland
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
,
San Jose,
Sacramento
Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
,
Fresno
Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...
,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
Pasadena
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...
,
Burbank
Burbank may refer to:
Places Australia
* Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane
United States
* Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County
* Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place
* Burbank, Illinois, ...
,
Bakersfield
Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region.
Bakersfield's population as of the ...
,
Riverside, and
San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
;
Las Vegas
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
, NV;
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, IL;
Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
, TX;
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, and
Mexico City
Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...
. In Europe, Hidden Cash did events in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
, and
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
.
Events typically consisted of the group hiding envelopes filled with money, most often between $50 and $100 in each, in various parks. In beaches in Southern California, from Los Angeles to San Diego, the group would hide money in Angry Birds toys or Pez dispensers. Pez dispensers were also used for the group's final drops at Coney Island and Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, New York.
The number of participants in every scavenger hunt type event typically ranged from 200 to over 3000. A July event at a city park in
Whittier, CA
Whittier () is a city in Los Angeles County, California, and is part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 census figure. Whittier was incorporated in Febr ...
resulted in $5000 worth of property damage, which the group reimbursed the city for. The group also sponsored free ice cream on July 4 at
Ben and Jerry's
Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin (name), Benjamin, Benedict (given name), Benedict, Bennett (name), Bennett, Benson (given name), Benson or Ebenezer (given name), Ebenezer, and is also a given name in its ...
in San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, DC. On Monday, August 4, the group bought $1000 worth of groceries for shoppers in the Bronx, NY. Hidden Cash encourages its followers to "pay it forward".
Dozens of copycat accounts have sprung up around the world, most using "Hidden Cash" as part of their name, and many doing similar events in their local area.
On August 12, 2014, Hidden Cash creators Jason Buzi and Yan Budman announced that they were discontinuing the current phase of cash drops effective immediately.
Buzi stressed that although the current iteration of Hidden Cash had ended, he remained hopeful that the next phase of "fun and giving" could soon be underway. At the time of the announcement, the original Twitter account @hiddencash had 720,000 followers.
By mid-2015, Buzi clarified that Hidden Cash was not active.
[
As of April 2020, the Hidden Cash Twitter account had begun giving money to followers via guessing contests.]
References
Secret Millionaire Behind HiddenCash Treasure Hunt Announces London Giveaways Next
''The Telegraph''. Accessed, June 20, 2014.
*http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/cashtomato-money-giveaway-turns-rotten-union-square-riot-article-1.306399
External links
*{{Twitter, HiddenCash, @HiddenCash
Definition HiddenCash France
by startu
speed-cashcache.com
*
2014 in San Francisco
Organized events in San Francisco