The Epstein Files released by the DOJ reveal how Jeffrey Epstein began investing strategically in Bitcoin infrastructure starting in 2014. Emails and financial documents confirm a $500,000 investment in Blockstream. At the same time, $525,000 went to the MIT Digital Currency Initiative.
After the Bitcoin Foundation collapsed, the DCI took over three central Core developers. Epstein had already been a registered sex offender for six years at the time of these investments. Yet his access to key figures in Bitcoin development ran through MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito and a network of prominent tech investors. The documents paint a picture of systematic positioning during the early phase of Bitcoin governance.
Subscribe to our newsletter
The best articles of the week, directly delivered into your mailbox.
Blockstream: $500,000 via the Ito vehicle
In March 2014, Blockstream co-founder Austin Hill met the convicted sex offender for the first time in Vancouver. A month later, Hill and Adam Back arranged a follow-up meeting on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Back is the inventor of Hashcash and Blockstream's CEO. In May, Epstein confirmed the investment via email.
The money flowed through Kyara Investments III, an investment firm shared equally with Joi Ito. Hill had originally planned for just $50,000. After intervention by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, he increased the allocation in July 2014 to $500,000. Blockstream's entire seed round totaled $21 million.
According to Adam Back, Kyara sold its stake "a few months after the investment due to potential conflicts of interest and other concerns." The exact timing remains unclear. Ito's firm Digital Garage invested again in Blockstream's Series A ($55 million) in 2016 and Series A2 ($25 million) in 2017. Back stated in February 2026:
"Blockstream has no direct or indirect financial connections to Jeffrey Epstein or his estate." - Statement by Adam Back
Aggressive ecosystem building: the Stellar email
An email dated July 31, 2014, shows how Hill used Blockstream's investor circle as a strategic instrument. Under the subject line "Stellar isn't so Stellar," he wrote directly to Hoffman, Ito, and Epstein:
"Ripple and Jed's new [project]Stellar are bad for the ecosystem we are building, and it hurts our company when investors bet on two horses in the same race." - Austin Hill
Hill threatened to cut or withdraw investment allocations. Investors were expected to choose between Bitcoin infrastructure and competing projects. As a direct recipient, Epstein sat at the table for strategic directional decisions. David Schwartz, then Ripple's CTO, later commented on this stance: "The sad thing is that we really are all in the same boat and this attitude hurts everyone in this space."
MIT Digital Currency Initiative: Epstein's money for Bitcoin Core
Between 2002 and 2017, Epstein donated a total of $850,000 to MIT. Its largest single amount: $525,000 went to the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab. On April 15, 2015, Ito officially founded the DCI. Ten days later, on April 25, he wrote to Epstein:
"We used the donated funds for financing, which allowed us to act quickly and win this round. Thank you." - Joi Ito
This timing was no coincidence. Just weeks earlier, the Bitcoin Foundation had filed for bankruptcy. Until then, the Foundation had centrally funded Bitcoin Core developers. Its collapse created a power vacuum in Bitcoin governance. The MIT DCI stepped directly into that gap.
Three of the five core developers moved to the DCI. They controlled all code changes to the Bitcoin protocol at the time. Wladimir van der Laan joined as Lead Developer, Gavin Andresen as Chief Scientist, and Cory Fields as Core Contributor. Ito described the recruitment to Epstein as "a big win for us." After the Epstein-Bitcoin connection became public, van der Laan stated he had been unaware of it. The DCI's funding had not been transparent at the time. Still, he emphasized that the sponsorship came "with no strings attached whatsoever."
In technical terms, the context puts the sensitivity in perspective: Bitcoin Core is fully open source. Every change goes through a rigorous peer-review process involving thousands of independent contributors. There is no evidence of direct influence by Epstein on code or technical decisions.
Early contacts and Coinbase investment
Epstein's interest in Bitcoin goes back further than the Blockstream investments. As early as June 2011, he wrote to entrepreneur Jason Calacanis: "I would like to get in touch with the Bitcoin people." On June 12, 2011, he then contacted Bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen directly by email. Two days later, Andresen gave a Bitcoin presentation at the CIA, invited by its venture capital arm In-Q-Tel. Whether a phone call between Epstein and Andresen actually took place remains open.
Beyond that, Epstein also invested in the largest U.S. crypto exchange. In December 2014, he put $3 million into Coinbase through IGO Company LLC. The deal came together through Tether co-founder Brock Pierce and Blockchain Capital. Pierce called it "the most platinum-plated deal in the space." In 2018, Epstein sold half his shares back for roughly $15 million. This represented a five-fold return on half the position.
Network of tech elites and open questions
Epstein's access to the Bitcoin scene was part of a broader tech network. In August 2015, Reid Hoffman invited Ito and Epstein to a dinner with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Peter Thiel. Additionally, Epstein invested $40 million in Thiel's Valar Ventures in 2016. And he had been a member of the Edge Foundation, a network of leading scientists and entrepreneurs, since at least 1999.
In September 2019, after Epstein's death in custody, Ito resigned as MIT Media Lab director. He had systematically concealed Epstein as an anonymous donor. The newly released emails now show that Epstein's role went far beyond anonymous donations. As the documents reveal, he was included in strategic email chains and received information about governance structures. At the same time, he invested in competing areas of crypto infrastructure.
Taken together, the Epstein Files document a direct funding line between a convicted sex offender and the institutional foundation of Bitcoin development. Yet the documents provide no evidence of technical influence on the protocol to date.
