As part of the publication of Epstein's files, the U.S. Department of Justice released new emails. They revealed that Jeffrey Epstein contacted Bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen two days before he visited CIA headquarters to discuss cryptocurrency in June 2011. The event also almost exactly coincided with the moment when the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, stopped posting messages in personal correspondence and thematic forums where the main cryptocurrency was discussed.
Chronology of events
It should be noted that the first half of 2011 for bitcoin was marked by a rapid price increase — in the first six months of the year, the price rose by thousands of percent, from about $0.3 to over $24. That year, exchanges such as Mt.Gox and BitcoinMarket were already operating, and new platforms, including Britcoin, Bitcoin Brazil, VirWoX, and Bitomat, were launched.
On April 26, 2011, Satoshi sent Andresen the last known message asking to downplay his image as "mysterious and behind the scenes."
On April 27, 2011, Andresen publicly stated that he was going to give a presentation on bitcoin at the CIA headquarters in June at a conference on new technologies for the U.S. intelligence community.
"I accepted the invitation to speak because the fact that I was invited means that bitcoin is already on their radar, which might be a good chance to talk about why I think bitcoin will make the world better," Andresen wrote at that time.
Many speculate that the fact that Andresen was invited to speak at the CIA may have influenced Satoshi's decision to cease public activity. It was also then that the theory arose that bitcoin is indeed a CIA project.
On June 6, journalist and socialite Jason Kalakanis replied to Epstein's letter, promising to send Andresen's contacts.
"I would like to connect with the bitcoin guys," Epstein wrote to Kalakanis eight days before Andresen's meeting at the CIA.
Two days before the presentation at the CIA, Epstein wrote to Andresen himself and asked him to call, but from the messages in the published archive, it is unclear whether there was a conversation between Andresen and Epstein. It is known that Andresen declined the invitation to meet Epstein in person, and there are also no signs of active correspondence between them.
The conference itself took place on June 14, where, according to Andresen himself, he even managed to sell some bitcoins to a CIA agent.
Investments in bitcoin
Among the published documents, there was also a letter from June 2011 in which Epstein called bitcoin a "brilliant idea," but with a warning about "serious shortcomings."
According to the founder of the major analytical blockchain platform CryptoQuant, Ki En Joo, referencing some letters, in 2011 Epstein even invested in bitcoin and various crypto projects. However, it is unlikely that Epstein believed, Joo writes, that the first cryptocurrency would enter the mainstream, and he preferred short-term trading over long-term holding.
This opinion is indirectly confirmed by later correspondence. In 2017, when asked directly "Is it worth buying bitcoin?" Epstein replied very briefly: "No."
In addition to Andresen, other representatives of the crypto market are mentioned in relation to Epstein. As Cointelegraph reports, crypto investor and co-founder of Tether Brock Pierce repeatedly contacted Epstein starting in 2011. Correspondence showed that Pierce discussed investment opportunities in Coinbase with him and possibly acted as an intermediary in the deal. In 2018, one of the participants in the correspondence, presumably Epstein, claimed that Pierce taught him "everything about cryptocurrency."
The head of Blockstream and one of the most well-known bitcoin developers, Adam Back, also appears in the materials in connection with Epstein's investments. In 2014, Epstein participated in Blockstream's seed round of $18 million, investing $50,000 through the fund of the director of MIT Media Lab. Back himself stated, commenting on the correspondence, that the relationship was limited to this deal, and the fund soon sold the shares due to a conflict of interest, emphasizing that Blockstream has no financial ties to Epstein or his heirs.