The convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein constructed his finance profession by connections with the world’s strongest folks, from Apollo’s Leon Black to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. However newly launched paperwork from the Division of Justice reveal that earlier than his 2019 suicide in federal jail, Epstein additionally cultivated ties with the still-emerging crypto trade, with early investments in U.S crypto alternate Coinbase in addition to Bitcoin infrastructure firm Blockstream. The funding in Coinbase represented lower than 1% of the corporate’s fairness, and Epstein’s stake in Blockstream by one other fund was not disclosed.
It’s not clear how or when Epstein first developed an curiosity in crypto, however his investments in two of the trade’s most outstanding names underscore his capability to domesticate ties in numerous pockets of tech and finance—even after his first conviction in 2008 on state prices for solicitation of prostitution with a minor.
Coinbase declined to remark. Blockstream didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Coinbase
Within the early 2010s, Brock Pierce, a former youngster star who acted within the 1992 movie The Mighty Geese, started advising Epstein on a collection of crypto investments by his function as managing companion at a nascent enterprise capital firm known as Crypto Forex Companions. The funding agency would later rebrand as Blockchain Capital and turn out to be probably the most outstanding traders within the crypto trade.
Pierce was an early crypto booster who had cofounded the stablecoin firm Tether, which might ultimately develop to turn out to be a money-printing behemoth whose dollar-pegged token has turn out to be the preferred secure asset in crypto.
Pierce, who left Blockchain Capital in 2017, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. “Mr. Epstein has never been an investor in any Blockchain Capital fund,” stated a spokesperson for the enterprise investor.
Neither Pierce, Blockchain Capital, nor Coinbase have been linked to any wrongdoing with Epstein.
Early Bitcoin
In a put up on X on Feb. 1, Again wrote that Blockstream was launched to Epstein by way of former MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito, with Epstein investing in Blockstream in his capability as a restricted companion in Ito’s fund. Again stated that Ito’s fund divested from its Blockstream shares owing to “potential conflict of interest, and other concerns,” arguing that Blockstream has no direct or oblique monetary reference to Epstein.
Ito, whose MIT Media Lab hosted early Bitcoin improvement, beforehand confronted blowback for his ties to Epstein and resigned from a lot of positions in 2019.
Epstein, although, seems to have missed out on getting in early on what would turn out to be one of many greatest Bitcoin corporations. In 2010, Peggy Siegal, a publicist with whom he labored, crossed paths with Michael Saylor, founding father of the software program firm then known as MicroStrategy. Saylor would later go on to pivot his firm to turn out to be one of many largest holders of Bitcoin on the planet.
Saylor would ultimately rename his firm Technique. Spokespeople for his agency didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. “Who is Michael Saylor? The nightmare was years ago, and I have no memory of this person,” Siegal wrote in a textual content to Fortune. She didn’t instantly make clear what she was referring to when she stated “nightmare.”
Neither she, Hill, Again, Blockstream, Ito, nor Saylor have been linked to any wrongdoing with Epstein.
Replace, Feb. 6, 2026: This story was up to date to make clear Epstein’s stake in Coinbase and Blockstream.
