{"id":6315,"date":"2026-02-04T08:23:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=6315"},"modified":"2026-02-04T08:23:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:23:39","slug":"epstein-ties-surface-in-early-bitcoin-industry-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=6315","title":{"rendered":"Epstein Ties Surface in Early Bitcoin Industry Investment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div id=\"blockquote-block_783e394434bcbaa9f82ca15008326d72\" class=\"blockquote-container\" style=\"border-color: #5100fc\">\n<div class=\"blockquote-text\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Documents released in the latest Epstein files dump reveal that early Bitcoin developer Adam Back and his Blockstream co-founder, Austin Hill, had ties to the convicted sex offender.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Email exchanges between the Blockstream co-founders reveal that Epstein was an early investor in their company back in 2014 and that the pair likely visited his notorious island.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back took to Twitter to explain the links, saying Epstein invested in Blockstream indirectly through a fund managed by Joi Ito, the former director of the MIT Media Lab.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Documents in the latest tranche of files linked to disgraced financier and convicted child sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, reveal that the founders of Bitcoin infrastructure firm Blockstream, Adam Back and Austin Hill, were invited to Epstein\u2019s notorious island in 2014 following Epstein\u2019s investment in their then fledgling firm.<\/p>\n<p>Back is known as a pioneer in the world of cryptography and was famously one of the first people contacted by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto during his efforts to create his new cryptocurrency. Back\u2019s 1997 proof-of-work based spam prevention software, Hashcash, ultimately served as the direct inspiration for Bitcoin\u2019s mining mechanism.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Back and Hill\u2019s company, Blockstream, is currently an important infrastructure developer in the Bitcoin ecosystem, having been behind the development of the Bitcoin sidechain, the Liquid Network.<\/p>\n<p>The contact between Epstein and the Blockstream founders began with an email sent to Hill on April 15, 2014, in which Epstein asked Hill to call him and provided a phone number. Hill responded via email two hours later, saying he\u2019d tried to call, but Epstein wasn\u2019t available to speak.<\/p>\n<p>In the email exchange, Hill told Epstein he\u2019d be unable to attend a planned meetup in New York, but added that \u201cFri\/Saturday on the island are still possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Epstein later emailed another early Bitcoin developer, Amir Taaki, on Saturday, April 19, 2014, saying he had \u201cAdam Back on my island this weekend.\u201d \u2018Andy Back\u2019 here is likely a reference to Adam Back \u2014 Epstein\u2019s emails are riddled with typos and other obvious mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>Yet another email exchange between Epstein and Hill shows that the felon (he\u2019d been listed as a sex offender since 2008) had been invited to attend a comedy event in Montreal called \u201cThe Nasty Show,\u201d with Back, Hill and other Blockstream staff members, but ultimately couldn\u2019t attend.<\/p>\n<p>Hill emailed Epstein the day after the show to let him know the Blockstream staff were \u201cwell entertained.\u201d In November of 2014, an Italian venture capitalist named Vincenzo Iozzo emailed Epstein to ask what he thought of Back \u2014 Epstein responded with just two words, \u201clike him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: Trump\u2019s Fed Pick Kevin Warsh Sends Mixed Signals for Crypto<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-back-explains-epstein-links-doesn-t-mention-island-visit\">Back Explains Epstein Links, Doesn\u2019t Mention Island Visit<\/h2>\n<p>In a post on X \/ Twitter on February 2, Back sought to explain his and his company\u2019s links to Epstein, characterising their relationship as strictly financial.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In 2014, during Blockstream\u2019s seed-round investor roadshow, the company was introduced to then MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito. Subsequently Blockstream met with Jeffrey Epstein, who was described at the time as a limited partner in Ito\u2019s fund. That fund later invested a minority\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adam Back (@adam3us) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adam3us\/status\/2018069917967233443?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 1, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIn 2014, during Blockstream\u2019s seed-round investor roadshow, the company was introduced to then MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito. Subsequently Blockstream met with Jeffrey Epstein, who was described at the time as a limited partner in Ito\u2019s fund. That fund later invested a minority stake in Blockstream,\u201d Back explained.<\/p>\n<p>Back said the financial ties between Epstein and Blockstream were short-lived. The fund Epstein had contributed to divested its ownership stake in Blockstream after just a few months. \u201cA few months later, Ito\u2019s fund divested its Blockstream shares due to a potential conflict of interest, and other concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"blockquote-block_c155c9dfbace3cbd8655d2a2ca20d76e\" class=\"blockquote-container variant-personal\">\n<div class=\"blockquote-text\">\n<p><em>Blockstream has no direct nor indirect financial connection with Jeffrey Epstein, or his estate.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"blockquote-attribution\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.cryptonews.com.au\/2024\/09\/03132028\/Adam-Back.jpg\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.cryptonews.com.au\/2024\/09\/03132028\/Adam-Back.jpg\" class=\"author-image\" data-eio=\"l\"\/>        Adam Back, Blockstream co-founder    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Notably, Back\u2019s explanation didn\u2019t mention anything about his apparent visit to Epstein\u2019s notorious Caribbean island, Little Saint James.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: Crypto Winter Is Here \u2013 and It\u2019s Closer to Thawing Than You Think<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Former MIT Media Lab Ito\u2019s links to Epstein were confirmed in a 2019 letter in which he wrote that he came to know Epstein in 2013 through his fundraising work managing MIT-linked funds. Ito also claimed his links with Epstein were strictly business, saying he\u2019d never witnessed anything inappropriate in his interactions with the disgraced financier.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want you to know that in all of my interactions with Epstein, I was never involved in, never heard him talk about, and never saw any evidence of the horrific acts that he was accused of,\u201d Ito claimed in his letter.<\/p>\n<p>Other files released last week have revealed that Epstein was also an early investor in the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, contributing US$3 million (AU$4.2m) back in 2014 when the company was valued at around US$400 million (AU$569m). Epstein later sold half his investment in Coinbase to Blockchain Capital in 2018 for US$15 million (AU$21m).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>Bitcoin,Investing#Epstein #Ties #Surface #Early #Bitcoin #Industry #Investment1770193419<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Documents released in the latest Epstein files dump reveal that early Bitcoin developer Adam Back and his Blockstream co-founder, Austin Hill, had ties to the convicted sex offender. Email exchanges between the Blockstream co-founders reveal that Epstein was an early investor in their company back in 2014 and that the pair likely visited his notorious<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[91,122,2114,180,127,1532,2173],"class_list":{"0":"post-6315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bitcoin","8":"tag-bitcoin","9":"tag-early","10":"tag-epstein","11":"tag-industry","12":"tag-investment","13":"tag-surface","14":"tag-ties"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Epstein Ties Surface in Early Bitcoin Industry Investment - Crypto News: Latest Cryptocurrency News and Analysis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=6315\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Epstein Ties Surface in Early Bitcoin Industry Investment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Documents released in the latest Epstein files dump reveal that early Bitcoin developer Adam Back and his Blockstream co-founder, Austin Hill, had ties to the convicted sex offender. 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