Bitcoin Billionaire Dodges Epstein Ties-Just?

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Adam Back, Blockstream’s CEO, found himself in the crosshairs of a tempest that only the Department of Justice could conjure. As newly unsealed Epstein files fluttered into the public sphere like autumn leaves, Back took to his keyboard to assert that Blockstream’s connection to the disgraced financier was as fleeting as a summer breeze.

“We ain’t got nothin’ to hide,” he declared, though the words tasted like stale bread in a world hungry for scandal. The ties, he claimed, were brief-a handshake at a party, a nod in the dark. Back painted a picture of 2014, when Blockstream’s seed fundraising was a fledgling bird, flapping its wings in the shadow of Joi Ito, the MIT Media Lab’s director. Through Ito, they met Epstein, who wore the hat of a limited partner in Ito’s fund like a borrowed suit. But the fund, after a few months, shed the stake like a snake shedding skin, citing “conflicts” and “concerns” that probably meant someone blinked first.

The DOJ, ever the curator of America’s darkest chapters, released another batch of Epstein-related documents, each page a potential career ender for someone. Among them: emails from 2014 where Austin Hill, Blockstream’s co-founder, chatted about funding rounds with Ito and Epstein. There was even a mention of St. Thomas, that tropical paradise near Epstein’s compound, where the sun sets on secrets and the sand remembers everything.

Epstein, it seems, had a soft spot for cryptocurrency, though his opinions on Ripple and Stellar were as scathing as a teabag thrown into a hurricane. The files also name Kevin Warsh, Trump’s Fed pick, and Peggy Siegal, who described Michael Saylor as a “zombie on a drug.” One can only imagine the cocktail party conversations that led to such accolades.

Henrik Zeberg, Swissblock’s macro economist, threw his hat into the ring with a tweet that dripped moral superiority: “If you went to Epstein’s island after 2008, you’re a bad person. No exceptions.” It’s the kind of statement that makes you wonder if the man ever met a party he didn’t want to cancel.

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2026-02-03 01:38