Blockstream has no financial links to Jeffrey Epstein, Adam Back says

Blockstream CEO and co-founder Adam Back addressed newly surfaced documents from the Jeffrey Epstein files, denying any ongoing connection between his company and the disgraced financier.

“Blockstream has no direct nor indirect financial connection with Jeffrey Epstein, or his estate,” Back stated in a Sunday post on social media platform X.

Back’s statement comes amid the ongoing release of millions of pages of Epstein-related materials by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Jan. 30 release of new documents included the names of various figures in tech and finance. However, the presence of a name in the files does not, by itself, indicate wrongdoing.

One of the documents includes email correspondence from July 2014 in which Blockstream co-founder Austin Hill discussed the company’s seed round with Epstein and Joi Ito, then director of the MIT Media Lab, with Back included in the email loop.

“Hi Joi & Jeffrey; We are down to the wire on closing this round,” Hill wrote in the email. “We are 10x oversubscribed on an $18m seed round and Reid at the last minute told us to bump your allocation from $50k to $500k … Looking forward to sitting down face to face again soon.”

In another unsealed document, Back and Hill’s names were mentioned in travel booking confirmations, headed to St. Thomas, an island near Epstein’s infamous private island compound.

“I mentioned to Jeffrey that I’m happy to arrange for our own flights since we are going forward to SFO after St Thomas,” Hill wrote to Epstein’s associate Daphne Wallace.

In the Sunday post on X, the Blockstream founder explained that the company was introduced to Joi Ito during its seed-round investor roadshow in 2014. This led to a meeting with Epstein, who was presented as a limited partner in Ito’s fund, which subsequently invested a minority stake in Blockstream.

Back noted that the fund divested its Blockstream shares due to concerns of potential conflict of interest. He did not, however, mention the emails regarding travel arrangements to St. Thomas. Hill reposted Back’s social media statement.

Despite Back’s explanation, a large part of social media remains critical of his past ties with Epstein. Some criticized how Back’s statement came out only after the documents had been revealed, while others demanded more information on his and Hill’s past relationship with Epstein.

The Block has reached out to Back for further comment.

Jeffrey Epstein’s crypto ties

The latest batch of unsealed documents revealed that Epstein held not only money but also extensive ties in crypto.

Blockstream’s Hill was seen telling Ito and Epstein how Stellar and Ripple were “bad for the ecosystem” that Blockstream is building. Hill argued that backing “two horses in the same race” created conflicts and damaged the company, and he urged Epstein and Ito to reconsider or reduce their support for those projects.

Another email thread shows that Epstein and prominent tech and crypto venture capitalist Peter Thiel discussed the value of bitcoin.

“It appears that there is little agreement on what Bitcoin is,” Epstein wrote to Thiel in July 2014. “Store of or intrinsic value, ( if any ) currency, property, architecture, payment system. etc., conflicting goals. Anonymous, but transparent ( public ledger ) … Anyway, more when I see you.”

Epstein himself even pitched ideas to form new digital currencies. In an October 2016 email to Saudi Arabian officials, he proposed two currencies in the Middle East: one a physical fiat currency called “the Sharia” intended for internal use among Muslims and a Sharia-compliant digital currency modeled on bitcoin technology.

Other prominent names in the documents include Kevin Warsh, whom Donald Trump named Federal Reserve chair last week. Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor was also mentioned in the documents, with publicist Peggy Siegal citing his name several times.

The Epstein files, unsealed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed by the U.S. Congress last year, consist of over 6 million pages of documents, images, and videos detailing Epstein’s criminal activities as a convicted sex offender and financier.

The act requires the DOJ to publish all unclassified records related to Epstein’s investigation and prosecution, including those involving his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, flight logs, and names of individuals referenced in the materials. Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges, including sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.