Recently released documents expose how convicted financier Jeffrey Epstein sought to exert influence over the nascent cryptocurrency industry, advocating for specific regulations and connecting early blockchain pioneers with traditional power brokers.
U.S. lawmakers recently disclosed more than 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate archives, revealing communications with prominent figures across politics, media, Hollywood, and emerging financial sectors. His recurring interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is highlighted throughout these exchanges.
Epstein demonstrated a keen focus on Bitcoin’s tax implications in a February 2018 email exchange with Steve Bannon, former chief strategist for Donald Trump’s first administration. He pressed Bannon for guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department on cryptocurrency tax policy, a detail noted in a Decrypt report.
“Will Treasury respond to you regarding crypto or do we need another avenue for advice?” Epstein reportedly asked Bannon. Bannon replied that the matter fell under the purview of the National Security Council, not the Treasury.
Epstein then proposed that the Treasury create a voluntary disclosure form for crypto gains. He suggested this measure would “screw all the bad guys” and address tax compliance issues.
Beyond cryptocurrency, Epstein also advised Bannon on a pro-Trump media campaign, providing economic feedback and coaching him on television appearances and political messaging during a six-day period in August.
Epstein’s views on cryptocurrencies were broad and consistent. In September 2018, he wrote to an associate that “cryptocurrencies must be thought of [as] similar to the internet” and required coordinated international agreements. Without these, he warned, it would be “an outlaw Ponzi scheme.”
Just two weeks before his June 2019 arrest, he critiqued Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project. He called it “money, not a currency,” cautioning that in “wrong hands” it could “bring down the financial system.”
Another key revelation details a 2015 meeting at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion involving Brock Pierce, co-founder of Tether and Block.one, and president of the Bitcoin Foundation. Pierce, who reportedly presented himself as “the most active Bitcoin investor,” discussed the asset class with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
Summers, previously a Harvard rector, acknowledged seeing “opportunities” in Bitcoin but expressed concerns about potential damage to his reputation. In response to Pierce’s comments on crypto volatility, Summers reportedly stated, “I could go from being seen as a figure of some probity and some intelligence to a figure of much less intelligence and much less probity.”
This meeting was detailed in an early version of an unpublished New York Magazine article shared within Epstein’s emails. The article highlighted Epstein’s role in facilitating connections between cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and traditional elite figures during Bitcoin’s early stages.
Pierce’s association with Epstein reportedly dates back to at least 2011. He attended Epstein’s Mindshift scientific conference in the Virgin Islands that year. Decrypt was the first to report the revelations about the Pierce-Summers meeting.
The documents also show PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel on Epstein’s agenda around the same period. Thiel’s Founders Fund was an early institutional investor in Bitcoin in 2014.
These findings underscore Epstein’s continued role as a connector in emerging financial sectors, even following his 2008 conviction. The revelations are expected to fuel further debates about hidden influences on cryptocurrency regulation and development.