Newly released documents detail convicted sex offender’s early backing of bitcoin and Coinbase
Millions of files related to Jeffrey Epstein have brought to light his ties to the highest echelons of the cryptocurrency industry.
Documents published last week by the US Department of Justice reveal Epstein bankrolled the “principal home and funding source” for bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, during its nascent stages; he also invested $3m in Coinbase in 2014, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, and cut a check that same year to Blockstream, a prominent bitcoin-focused technology firm. Both crypto startups accepted Epstein’s investments in 2014 – six years after his 2008 conviction in Florida for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Despite murmurings among crypto communities online about the need for a sector-level reckoning around the Epstein files’ revelations, most industry players predict few consequences for crypto companies or the sector writ large. Some see Epstein as a “skeptical investor” who pulled out of his crypto investments prematurely; others go so far as to claim Epstein was attempting to “undermine bitcoin”.
The crypto companies that secured Epstein’s investment have grown into multi-billion-dollar giants, especially Coinbase, which went public on the Nasdaq in 2021, and whose co-founder, Brian Armstrong, has heavily influenced crypto regulation in the United States.
