Morning Minute: Epstein Was an Early Coinbase Investor – Decrypt

Morning Minute is a every day e-newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The evaluation and opinions expressed are his personal and don’t essentially mirror these of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

In the present day’s prime information:

• Crypto majors chop on the day; BTC holds at $78k
• Hyperliquid soars 17% after debuting final result markets
• Epstein revealed to be an early investor in Coinbase by way of current information
• XAI and SpaceX announce merger; xAI to rent “crypto specialists”
• Lighter introduced its Lighter EVM with Axiom

🔴 Jeffrey Epstein Was an Early Investor in Coinbase

The Epstein information simply dropped.

And buried within the 3 million paperwork was a crypto-related bombshell.

📌 What Occurred

Newly launched emails from the Division of Justice reveal that convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein made a $3M funding into Coinbase in December 2014.

The deal was organized by Tether co-founder Brock Pierce and his agency Blockchain Capital at a $400M valuation. In the present day, Coinbase is price roughly $51 billion.

Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam seems to have been conscious of who was behind the funding. In an e-mail dated December 3, 2014, Ehrsam wrote asking to satisfy with Epstein in New York.

“I’ve a spot between midday and 3pm immediately, however once more, not essential for me, however could be good to satisfy him if handy,” Ehrsam wrote.

Coinbase’s wire particulars have been instantly shared after Blockchain Capital confirmed the funding might proceed, finally reaching Epstein’s govt assistant Darren Indyke.

The funding got here greater than six years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for procuring a baby for prostitution.

Epstein cashed out half his stake in 2018 for practically $15M (from an preliminary $1.5M allocation), and seems to have retained the opposite half till his demise in 2019.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

Neither Coinbase, Ehrsam, Brock Pierce, nor Blockchain Capital have publicly commented on the revelations.

Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn’s founder, was additionally looped into Epstein’s crypto curiosity. When Epstein requested Hoffman “how onerous” to go on the Coinbase spherical, Hoffman replied: “I in all probability wouldn’t play.”

🧠 Why It Issues

Let’s be clear about what that is and what it isn’t.

This doesn’t imply Coinbase did something unlawful. Taking cash from a convicted felon isn’t against the law.

And the funding occurred over a decade in the past, when crypto was nonetheless a Wild West of funding sources and due diligence was, let’s say, evolving.

However it does increase questions concerning the trade’s early days and the individuals who bankrolled its most vital firms.

Just a few issues stand out:

1. The timing. Epstein invested six years after his conviction. By 2014, his standing as a registered intercourse offender was public data. The emails counsel Coinbase management was conscious of who they have been coping with.
2. The community. Brock Pierce, now finest generally known as Tether’s co-founder, brokered the deal. Different Epstein information present he was CC’d on early crypto discussions about Ripple, Stellar, and Bitcoin’s scaling debates. He claimed to have spoken with “the founders of Bitcoin.”
3. The return. A $3M funding at a $400M valuation in what turned a $51B firm is a 125x+ return. Epstein’s property doubtless nonetheless holds publicity to Coinbase.

This story received’t derail Coinbase.

However it does remind us that crypto’s “transfer quick and break issues” period got here with trade-offs.

Due diligence wasn’t all the time a precedence. And a few of the trade’s largest winners have been funded by individuals who, in hindsight, in all probability ought to have been proven the door.

Now the trade has to reckon with that historical past in public.

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

Just a few headlines that stood out:

• Crypto majors are flat on the day; BTC even at $78.1K; ETH -1% at $2,290; SOL -1% at $103; XRP -2% at ~$1.60
• STX (+20%), HYPE (+17%) and Polygon (+12%) led prime movers
• Elon introduced that xAI and SpaceX will formally merge and are valued at $1.25T; xAI reportedly hiring crypto specialists to show AI find out how to commerce
• Stablecoin volumes handed $10T final month, together with $8.6T for USDC
• Crypto shares fell onerous with bitcoin underneath $80K; Coinbase, Technique, and Robinhood all posting sizable losses Monday
• Opera inventory jumped 15%+ after including USDT and Tether Gold help to its MiniPay pockets; now has 12.6M activated wallets processing $153M+ month-to-month
• GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen introduced plans for a “very, very, very large” client firm acquisition he known as “far more compelling than bitcoin”
• JPMorgan’s 2026 Household Workplace Report exhibits 89% of household places of work have zero crypto publicity regardless of headlines and hype; solely 17% plan to spend money on digital belongings going ahead
• Mattress Bathtub & Past introduced it’s buying Tokens.com to construct a tokenized actual property platform with Determine Applied sciences
• Vitalik Buterin revealed he made $70K on Polymarket in 2025 by betting in opposition to excessive market sentiment; says the technique “normally makes cash”

In Company Treasuries / ETFs

• Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs shed $1.7B in weekly outflows final week, wiping out 2025 inflows fully; although the BTC ETFs did see $562M in internet inflows yesterday
• Technique added 855 BTC for $75.3M final week at a mean of $87,974; complete holdings now 713,502 BTC at $76,052 avg; place basically breakeven
• MSTR shares are down 7%+ in premarket to multi-year lows round $139
• Tom Lee’s BitMine added one other $96M in ETH final week; now holds 4.28M ETH (~3.5% of provide) with $6B+ in unrealized losses

In Memes / Onchain Movers

• Meme majors are bleeding; DOGE -X%, SHIB -X%, PEPE -X%, TRUMP -X%, FARTCOIN -X%
• Notable movers: Goyim (+300%), BIRB (+37%), Mystic (+80%) and 1 (+30%)

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• Hyperliquid unveiled HIP-4 so as to add “final result buying and selling” for prediction markets and options-style derivatives (HYPE +17%)
• Lighter introduced LighterEVM, now permitting common objective apps to compose with their markets
• BIRB shot up over 100% to $400M+ fdv after being listed on Upbit

🚚 What is going on in NFTs?

• NFT leaders have been inexperienced; Punks +1% at 27.5 ETH, Pudgy +5% at 4.35 ETH, BAYC +4% at 5.36 ETH; Hypurr’s +5% at 542 HYPE
• Moonbirds (+15%) and Moonbirds Mythics (+20%) led notable movers
• Nifty Gateway introduced it’ll shut down Feb 23; the Gemini-owned NFT market is now in withdrawal-only mode
• Adam Weitsman acquired the 3AC Pudgy Penguin assortment from Spencer