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In short
- Adam Again confirmed that Jeffrey Epstein invested in Blockstream throughout its 2014 seed spherical by then-MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito's fund.
- Again mentioned the funding was divested inside months resulting from battle of curiosity considerations, ending all monetary ties with Epstein.
- Newly launched emails present that Again was invited to Epstein's island, and that Epstein had a good opinion of the Bitcoin pioneer.
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 know-how firm Blockstream in 2014, based on newly launched recordsdata from the U.S. Division of Justice.
Again is a British cryptographer finest recognized for inventing Hashcash, a proof-of-work system that later grew to become a core constructing block of Bitcoin. He's additionally co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, the place he works on Bitcoin infrastructure, cryptography, and scaling applied sciences.
The e-mail alternate started with Epstein asking Hill on to name him on April 15, 2014 and offering a cellphone quantity. Two hours later, Hill responded saying he had tried to name him however was instructed that he had already left.
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 associate in Ito’s fund. That fund later invested a minority…
— Adam Again (@adam3us) February 1, 2026
Hill alluded to tentative plans they'd made to fulfill 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 attainable."
In a separate electronic mail from Epstein despatched to early Bitcoin developer Amir Taaki on April 19, 2014, Epstein instructed Taaki that he'd simply had "Andy Again," possible referring to the Blockstream co-founder, "on my island this weekend."
Epstein’s non-public Caribbean island, Little Saint James, has since turn 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 website the place Epstein trafficked and sexually abused underage women, typically flying them in on his non-public jet and housing them on the property.
Courtroom filings, sufferer testimony, and later civil lawsuits describe the island as a managed atmosphere the place Epstein exercised near-total authority over friends, employees, and victims.
Again made an announcement over the weekend—following the discharge of the emails—to say that Epstein's funding in Blockstream was made attainable 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 associate in Ito’s fund. That fund later invested a minority stake in Blockstream," Again wrote in a publish on X.
"Just a few months later, Ito’s fund divested its Blockstream shares resulting from 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 finally befell. Neither Blockstream spokespeople nor Again instantly responded to a request for remark from Decrypt.
In July 2014, there was one other electronic mail alternate between Hill and Epstein's employees in regards to the convicted intercourse offender touring to Montreal to attend a stand-up comedy occasion referred to as "The Nasty Present." Epstein's employees finally relayed that he couldn't make it.
Hill, who mentioned he attended with co-founder Again, emailed the subsequent day with a recap, writing that "the Blockstream crew have been nicely entertained" by the comic.
Later that 12 months, 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 calmly redacted electronic mail alternate, which was launched by the Division of Justice on Friday, exhibits that Epstein replied with simply two phrases: "like him."
There's no publicly out there info that signifies Iozzo personally invested in Blockstream. The corporate additionally raised cash from Khosla Ventures, one in every of Silicon Valley's finest recognized enterprise companies, together with Horizons Ventures, AXA Strategic Ventures, and Grayscale mother or father firm Digital Foreign money Group.
The connection between Epstein and Ito, who ran the MIT fund that he was invested in, isn't new. Ito admitted in a 2019 letter that he met the convicted intercourse offender in 2013 whereas fundraising for MIT.
"I need 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 speak about, 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 sum of money 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, based on reporting by Enterprise Insider.
Whereas he was at MIT, Ito was primarily recognized for the E14 Fund. It was an unbiased, non-profit fund designed to help startups created by MIT Media Lab graduates. However Ito additionally managed company funds for the lab whereas he was connected to MIT, which is how he got here into contact with Epstein.
The newest batch of recordsdata launched by the Division of Justice additionally revealed that Epstein was an early investor in crypto alternate 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 at the moment valued above $47 billion.
