Jeffrey Epstein Invested in Bitcoin Agency Blockstream, Invited Founder Adam Again to Island – Decrypt

Convicted intercourse offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein invited longtime Bitcoiner Adam Again and his co-founder Austin Hill to go to his island after investing of their Bitcoin expertise firm Blockstream in 2014, in line with newly launched information from the U.S. Division of Justice.

Again is a British cryptographer greatest recognized for inventing Hashcash, a proof-of-work system that later grew to become a core constructing block of Bitcoin. He is additionally co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, the place he works on Bitcoin infrastructure, cryptography, and scaling applied sciences.

The e-mail trade started with Epstein asking Hill on to name him on April 15, 2014 and offering a telephone quantity. Two hours later, Hill responded saying he had tried to name him however was advised that he had already left.

Hill alluded to tentative plans they’d made to satisfy in New York that Sunday, however mentioned it was a “no-go” due to commitments on the West Coast, however added that “Fri/Saturday on the island are nonetheless potential.”

In a separate e mail from Epstein despatched to early Bitcoin developer Amir Taaki on April 19, 2014, Epstein advised Taaki that he’d simply had “Andy Again,” possible referring to the Blockstream co-founder, “on my island this weekend.”

Epstein’s personal Caribbean island, Little Saint James, has since develop into a central image of his abuse community. Positioned within the U.S. Virgin Islands, the island was repeatedly recognized by survivors and prosecutors as a web site the place Epstein trafficked and sexually abused underage women, usually flying them in on his personal jet and housing them on the property.

Courtroom filings, sufferer testimony, and later civil lawsuits describe the island as a managed surroundings the place Epstein exercised near-total authority over friends, workers, and victims.

Again made a press release over the weekend—following the discharge of the emails—to say that Epstein’s funding in Blockstream was made potential by Joichi Ito, who was the MIT Media Lab Director on the time.

“In 2014, throughout Blockstream’s seed-round investor roadshow, the corporate was launched to then-MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito. Subsequently Blockstream met with Jeffrey Epstein, who was described on the time as a restricted accomplice in Ito’s fund. That fund later invested a minority stake in Blockstream,” Again wrote in a put up on X.

“Just a few months later, Ito’s fund divested its Blockstream shares on account of a possible battle of curiosity, and different considerations,” Again added. “Blockstream has no direct nor oblique monetary reference to Jeffrey Epstein, or his property.”

Again didn’t point out plans to go to Epstein’s island or whether or not the journey in the end befell. Neither Blockstream spokespeople nor Again instantly responded to a request for remark from Decrypt.

In July 2014, there was one other e mail trade between Hill and Epstein’s workers concerning the convicted intercourse offender touring to Montreal to attend a stand-up comedy occasion known as “The Nasty Present.” Epstein’s workers in the end relayed that he could not make it.

Hill, who mentioned he attended with co-founder Again, emailed the following day with a recap, writing that “the Blockstream crew had been effectively entertained” by the comic.

Later that yr, in November 2014, seven months after the deliberate island go to, Italian enterprise capitalist and early-stage tech investor Vincenzo Iozzo emailed Epstein to ask what he considered Again.

The frivolously redacted e mail trade, which was launched by the Division of Justice on Friday, reveals that Epstein replied with simply two phrases: “like him.”

There is no publicly accessible info that signifies Iozzo personally invested in Blockstream. The corporate additionally raised cash from Khosla Ventures, certainly one of Silicon Valley’s greatest recognized enterprise corporations, together with Horizons Ventures, AXA Strategic Ventures, and Grayscale mother or father firm Digital Forex Group.

The connection between Epstein and Ito, who ran the MIT fund that he was invested in, is not new. Ito admitted in a 2019 letter that he met the convicted intercourse offender in 2013 whereas fundraising for MIT.

“I would like you to know that in all of my interactions with Epstein, I used to be by no means concerned in, by no means heard him discuss, and by no means noticed any proof of the horrific acts that he was accused of,” Ito wrote in his letter. He additionally vowed to boost an amount of cash equal to the funding he accepted from Epstein and direct it to nonprofit organizations supporting survivors of trafficking.

When the letter got here out in 2019, two high-profile MIT workers stop, in line with reporting by Enterprise Insider.

Whereas he was at MIT, Ito was primarily recognized for the E14 Fund. It was an impartial, non-profit fund designed to assist startups created by MIT Media Lab graduates. However Ito additionally managed company funds for the lab whereas he was hooked up to MIT, which is how he got here into contact with Epstein.

The newest batch of information launched by the Division of Justice additionally revealed that Epstein was an early investor in crypto trade Coinbase, as Decrypt reported Monday.

Epstein invested $3 million within the agency in 2014, when it was valued at $400 million, although he offered half of his share to Blockchain Capital in 2018 for $15 million. Coinbase, which went public in 2021, is presently valued above $47 billion.