A cryptocurrency group has lost its efforts to purchase a rare copy of the US constitution at auction.

The group – ConstitutionDAO – said it wanted to “put the constitution in the hands of the people”.

He had amassed more than $ 40 million in donations through crowdfunding.

But the document was instead sold to another buyer for $ 43.2 million (£ 32 million) Thursday at Sotheby’s, at what the auction house called a record price for a historic document.

Donors will now have all their money returned, according to a group statement on Twitter.

Published in 1787, there are 13 known surviving copies from a circulation of 500 originally printed after the text was established at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The copy is one of only two not preserved in an institution’s collection, according to Sotheby’s.

The auction house estimated the copy to be worth $ 15 to $ 20 million.

The identity of the new buyer is unknown.

Proceeds from the auction will go to the Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation, a non-profit group that works to promote understanding of democracy.