The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has recently revealed yet another connection between Jeffrey Epstein and the world of finance, this time in the rapidly growing cryptocurrency industry.
According to newly released email documents, Epstein, a notorious financier who was later convicted of sex crimes, allegedly invested around $3.2 million in Coinbase in 2014, when the company was still in its infancy.
In 2014, Coinbase was not yet as popular in the crypto market as it is today.
The company was then valued at around $400 million, far below the multi-billion dollar valuation it would have enjoyed in the years that followed.
The DOJ’s emails show that an entity linked to Epstein acquired nearly 196,000 Series C shares of Coinbase, for a total investment of around $3.25 million.
Interestingly, these investments were not made in Epstein’s own name, but rather through several limited liability companies (LLCs).
The documents also suggest that the names of the investing entities were changed to hide the true owners of the funds, raising questions about the transparency of early-stage crypto investments.
It is important to emphasize that there is no evidence that Coinbase management was aware of Epstein’s involvement when the investments were made.
All transactions are believed to have been handled by investment firms and intermediary individuals.
This reflects the reality of the early-stage investing world, where startups often receive funding through third-party funds or entities without knowing the ultimate owner of the capital.
Four years later, in 2018, part of the holding was sold for $15 million, although it only involved about 50% of the original investment.
This shows the extraordinary returns on early-stage crypto investments.
The disclosure also revealed that Epstein also invested in several other crypto companies such as Blockstream, thus proving his involvement in the early stages of the blockchain industry’s development.
