Newly released emails from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) suggest that Jeffrey Epstein once claimed he had direct contact with the creators of Bitcoin — a statement that remains unverified and raises fresh questions about Epstein’s involvement in early crypto circles.
According to the documents, an email dated October 13, 2016, sent from Epstein’s address to Raafat Alsabbagh and Aziza Alahmadi, outlines an idea to use Bitcoin’s underlying technology to develop a Sharia-compliant digital currency for the Middle East. In the message, Epstein wrote that he had spoken to “some of the founders of bitcoin” and that they were “very excited” about the proposal.
The claim stands in sharp contrast to what is publicly known about Bitcoin’s origins. The network’s creator, known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, has never been identified, and no verified record exists of anyone privately representing themselves as Bitcoin’s founders. As a result, there is no way to confirm whether Epstein truly had any contact with people connected to Bitcoin’s creation or whether his statement was exaggerated or inaccurate.
The DOJ files also reveal that Epstein had been receiving Bitcoin-related material years before that 2016 email. In April 2013, Boris Nikolic forwarded Epstein an analysis written by Tren Griffin, who has written extensively about Bitcoin’s role as a payment system and the importance of network effects. Griffin’s analysis highlighted how Bitcoin’s value is largely shaped by the number of users participating in the network, noting that the asset does not have intrinsic value beyond what participants assign to it.
Beyond Bitcoin itself, the documents paint a broader picture of Epstein’s connections across the tech and finance worlds during crypto’s early years. A July 31, 2014 email from Austin Hill to Epstein — with Reid Hoffman and Joichi Ito copied — discussed concerns around Stellar’s launch and its relationship to Ripple. The email, titled “Stellar isn’t so Stellar,” warned that overlapping investors backing both Ripple and Stellar could create conflicts within the growing crypto ecosystem. Hoffman is a LinkedIn co-founder and well-known tech investor, while Ito was serving as director of the MIT Media Lab at the time.
Epstein’s 2016 proposal went further, suggesting the creation of two new digital currencies, including one designed to comply with Sharia law for internal use among Muslims in the Middle East. The message described a system that would function similarly to the U.S. dollar, but with built-in religious compliance requirements. Like the alleged contact with Bitcoin’s creators, this proposal remains unverified, and there is no evidence the project ever moved beyond the idea stage.
These revelations come from a massive DOJ document release containing around three million files related to Epstein’s associates and business dealings. Researchers continue to sift through the trove, and more details about Epstein’s involvement in early cryptocurrency discussions may yet emerge.
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