The Most Surprising Bitcoin and Crypto Stories in the Epstein Files

The convicted sex offender invested $3 million in 2014 and was introduced to the opportunity by Tether co-founder Brock Pierce and his investment firm, Blockchain Capital. However, Blockchain told Decrypt that Epstein ultimately invested independently, not through the firm.

Based on the emails, it's apparent that Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam was personally aware of the investment, which came years after Epstein’s conviction. The investment was made when Coinbase was valued around $400 million; the publicly traded company is now worth $44 billion. 

In 2018, Epstein sold around half of his investment back to Blockchain Capital, emails show.

In conversation with former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, Epstein suggested that the Treasury Department should create a voluntary disclosure form for crypto gains in an attempt to “fuck all the bad guys.”

Later that year, Epstein noted that crypto should be thought of similarly to the internet, and handled with “coordinated understandings” and international agreements. 

The two apparently utilized the disgraced financier's dwelling to chat about Bitcoin, with Summers noting that he saw “opportunities,” but was concerned about the potential damage to his reputation that Bitcoin losses could create.

“Blockstream met with Jeffrey Epstein, who was described at the time as a limited partner in [Joi] Ito’s fund,” wrote Back. “That fund later invested a minority stake in Blockstream.”

In his confirmation of Epstein’s investment, the Blockstream co-founder added that the firm “has no direct nor indirect financial connection with Jeffrey Epstein, or his estate” at present time. 

“There is little agreement on what Bitcoin is,” wrote Epstein. “Store of or intrinsic value, (if any) currency, property, architecture, payment system. Etc.” 

The reply followed a question from Thiel about an increasing “anti-BTC pressure” that might be growing within the U.S. government. 

At the time, Bitcoin was trading around $691 per coin. It’s since jumped dramatically, recently trading around $70,000 after peaking above $126,000 last October.

“He has no personality. Sort of like a zombie on a drug,” wrote Siegal of Saylor. “I walked him around and he was so weird that even I ran away from him.” 

According to the email, Saylor provided $25,000 for a spring gala for the "opportunity to get his name on [the] invite and meet a hip group.”

The email was sent more than a decade before Saylor’s software firm would make its first BTC purchase, with the firm amassing nearly $50 billion worth of the asset and inspiring a wave of followers to adopt a crypto treasury model.

Despite his 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute, a decade later, Epstein was concerned about the ethics of funding projects in the crypto space. 

“Their deal is to pump the currency,” said Epstein of investors in the space. “It is dangerous.”

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s name is found in the Epstein files, but not as a result of any direct connections or correspondence with the disgraced financier. 

“He can be better than Vitalik Buterin if he focuses on technology,” Drokova added. 

Although she offered to connect Epstein to the Russian individual, it is not clear who the technologist was, or whether or not they were ultimately linked to Epstein.