The latest dump of Epstein files from the U.S. Department of Justice has a variety of interesting emails and other documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s early interest and involvement in Bitcoin and the crypto industry. Previous reports established a connection between Epstein and the funding of Bitcoin Core development through Joi Ito at MIT, but new documents indicate Epstein may have had some involvement and even invested (directly or indirectly) in the early stages of a few different key crypto startups from crypto exchange giant Coinbase to Bitcoin technology company Blockstream. They also reveal Epstein had misgivings about profiting from crypto token pumps.
Some of the oldest emails in the Epstein files related to Bitcoin involve All-In Podcast co-host and angel investor Jason Calacanis, who Epstein reached out to in an effort to get in touch with anyone working on the two-year old decentralized financial network in 2011. Calacanis pointed to two Bitcoin Core contributors, Gavin Andresen and Amir Taaki, who had recently appeared on Calacanis’s show This Week in Startups
.@Jason said 10+ times that he only knew Epstein in the 90s. He was actually helping Epstein through the 2000s and 2010s, even after the child sex trafficking conviction.
Man starts VR company, donates to Trump: “Total moron, no moral compass!”
Man rapes children: “hey pal!” pic.twitter.com/RTgG56dw0l
— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) January 31, 2026
Anduril founder and CEO Palmer Luckey pointed to this interaction with glee, as Luckey has a longstanding beef with Calacanis. The All-In co-host also published his own statement on X in an attempt to distance himself from Epstein.
In the email, Calacanis warned Epstein that Andresen and Taaki were not business types, stating, “so you know, these are folks who are not trying to build a business. they are the crazy open source folks who are radicals. their motivation is more inline with Wikileaks or wikipedia.”
According to an X post from Taaki, “He wanted to invest in my company. I was for it but my CEO looked him up and said absolutely not. Dodged a bullet lol wish i can read this email.”
There are also a number of emails involving Epstein and Blockstream co-founder and former CEO Austin Hill. At one point, Hill emailed Ito, Epstein, and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman seemingly upset about investments made by some Blockstream investors in some of its perceived competitors, namely Ripple and Stellar.
“Ripple, and Jed’s new stellar are bad for the ecosystem we are building and it does our company damage to have investors who are backing two horses in the same race,” Hill wrote.
Epstein also received regular forwarded emails of Coinbase investor updates from Blockchain Capital co-founder Brock Pierce, who was also a co-founder of stablecoin giant Tether. The specifics are unclear, but there appears to have been a business arrangement between Epstein and Blockchain Capital, as one email claims the investment firm was paying Epstein and Richard Kahn, who was his longtime accountant, “a big number.”
Interesting email from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong to investors found in the Epstein files. It’s from February 2016, during Bitcoin’s block size debate.
Armstrong talks about how Coinbase is working in the background to ensure the network is not held back by “the early… pic.twitter.com/3MuxKyVhSz
— Kyle Torpey (@kyletorpey) February 1, 2026
One notable Coinbase investor update that Pierce forwarded to Epstein will be most relevant to those interested in the history of Bitcoin’s block size war. In the email, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong indicates the crypto exchange is working behind the scenes to make sure the Bitcoin protocol is not “held back by any of the early idealists.”
Roughly a year later, Coinbase would be a signatory of the so-called New York Agreement, which was a plan for changes to the Bitcoin network signed by many of the largest Bitcoin exchanges, wallet providers, and miners. The plan would eventually be abandoned prior to its completion, at least partly due to the perception that the changes would effectively implement a corporate takeover of the decentralized Bitcoin protocol.
one of the most deplorable, sadistic humans of the modern era somehow drew the line at pumping crypto tokens lol https://t.co/QLRAd6PtN6
— Gwart (@GwartyGwart) February 1, 2026
In another email exchange with Bitcoin developer Jeremy Rubin that looks humorous in hindsight, Epstein would claim he had ethics-related concerns with the idea of profiting off of the pumping of crypto tokens. “I am more than happy to fund things but as i am high profile, it can’t be questionable ethics,” Epstein told Rubin, indicating he may have been more worried about potential bad publicity. “Their deal is to pump the currency, it is dangerous.”
While the full list of crypto investments made by Epstein is still being clarified, these documents have provided plenty of intrigue in terms of the disgraced financier’s interactions with some of the most prominent names in the crypto industry back in its earliest days of development.
Of course, much like Republicans and Democrats, every crypto shill has interpreted the documents to fit their own narratives, ignoring the reality that all kinds of different people from varying backgrounds were willing to look the other way when it came to getting something out of Epstein, whether it be money, advice, or connections.
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