The Epstein documents, totaling approximately 3.5 million pages, released by the US Department of Justice on January 30th have shocked not only politics and business, but also the cryptocurrency market. Claims such as “Satoshi is in the document,'' “Epstein created Bitcoin,'' and even “The CIA is behind Bitcoin'' quickly spread on social media.
So what is the truth? Do the leaked documents really establish a direct connection between Bitcoin's mysterious founder Satoshi Nakamoto and Jeffrey Epstein?
Some images circulating on social media are fake. There is no evidence that Epstein is Satoshi Nakamoto
One of the most shared pieces of content on social media was an email Epstein allegedly sent to Ghislaine Maxwell. The image displayed a message dated October 31, 2008 that read:
The pen name “Satoshi” works perfectly. Our little digital goldmine is ready for the world.
However, it soon became clear that this image was fake. Obvious technical errors, such as the presence of two “To:” lines in the document and repeated header lines in the recipient section, indicate that this is not a genuine email. Additionally, the phrase “little digital gold mine” and the address listed in the email are not found in the U.S. Department of Justice archives.
Yes, there are several documents in Epstein's files that mention the name “Satoshi.” Additionally, one document states that Epstein “spoke with several of Bitcoin's founders.”
However, this does not mean that he founded Bitcoin. Communicating with a Bitcoin developer in 2016 does not prove that he wrote the protocol in 2008-2009. There is no technical match between Satoshi's known email communications and Epstein. There is no connection between Epstein and Bitcoin's first code commit. No link has been found to the initial wallet believed to belong to Satoshi.
Verified information within the document indicates that Epstein has invested in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Newly released emails reveal that Epstein invested $3 million in Coinbase in December 2014. The investment was organized through Tether co-founder Brock Pierce and Blockchain Capital.
Coinbase's value at the time was $400 million. The company's current market value is approximately $51 billion. Epstein also sold some of his investments in 2018, converting about $15 million into cash.
Epstein also invested in Blockstream, an early Bitcoin infrastructure company, according to the documents. Adam Back, one of the founders of Blockstream, acknowledged the 2014 investment on social media. There are also claims that the back is Satoshi Nakamoto, but these have not been definitively confirmed.
The documents also reveal that Epstein donated a total of $850,000 to MIT from 2002 to 2017. Of this amount, $525,000 was donated to the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) within the MIT Media Lab.
When the Bitcoin Foundation was hit by a financial crisis in 2015, some Bitcoin Core developers joined MIT DCI. These developers include Wladimir van der Laan, Gavin Andresen, and Cory Fields.
However, the developers were unaware of the source of the donations and allegedly received their salaries directly from MIT. Bitcoin's governance structure is decentralized, making it technically impossible for a single donor to control the protocol.
So what is the answer to the question “Is Epstein Satoshi Nakamoto?” In short, no. Current evidence provides no technical clues that Jeffrey Epstein wrote the Bitcoin white paper, mined the first block, or controlled Satoshi's cryptographic keys.
The Epstein dossier does not indicate that the cryptography itself is at risk. The Bitcoin protocol, designed by Satoshi Nakamoto, has a decentralized structure. This network continues to operate independently of any individuals, donors or investors. Open source networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to operate independently of their initial funding structure. This is considered one of the biggest points of resilience for cryptocurrencies.
*This is not investment advice.
