A group of crypto investors who raised more than $40 million to buy a rare copy of the US Constitution ended up losing the auction

• A group of crypto investors lost out to an anonymous bidder in an auction for a rare copy of the US Constitution.
• The document, a first printing of the Constitution, was sold for $43.2 million on Thursday.

A rare copy of the US Constitution was sold at auction on Thursday for $43.2 million – but not to a group of cryptocurrency investors that had high hopes of posting the winning bid.

The first-edition copy of the Constitution, which is one of 13 remaining official copies, was sold at Sotheby's to a private bidder, per the auction house's website.

The crypto investors, known as Constitution DAO, had raised more than $40 million to bid for the document, The Wall Street Journal reported.

ConstitutionDAO wanted to buy the document to preserve it and put it on public display, according to its website. The group tweeted that it had 17,437 participants who contributed a median donation of $206.26 each.

Participants will be refunded most of their money, ConstitutionDAO tweeted after the auction result.

Sotheby's estimated that the copy of the Constitution would be sold for between $15 million and $20 million, per its website.

The copy, which dates back to 1787, is one of two copies that are still owned privately. It was previously owned by a Dorothy Goldman, whose husband bought it in 1988.