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Epstein Made a $3M Investment in Coinbase, DOJ Email Exposes

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Epstein Made a $3M Investment in Coinbase, DOJ Email Exposes

The recent speculation surrounding the Epstein Files, referring to a huge collection of documents related to the case of American financier Jeffrey Epstein, revealed that he made a $3 million investment in the crypto exchange Coinbase over a decade ago.

Per documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein invested in Coinbase through Brock Pierce’s Blockchain Capital in 2014.

“Unclear if the deal actually went through, but there is a lot of discussion around investing in Coinbase in the files,” wrote Bitcoin researcher Kyle Torpey.

The Connection Between Epstein and Fred Ehrsam

The purchase allegedly secured Epstein a face-to-face meeting with Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam. In a leaked email screenshot, “Jeff” is mentioned along with Ehrsam, indicating that Ehrsam might have known about his involvement in Coinbase.

Source: X

“I have a gap between noon and 3pm today, but again, not crucial for me, but would be nice to meet him if convenient. Is it important for him,” Ehrsam wrote.

Four years later, in 2018, another email confirmed that Epstein got his Coinbase allocation. It appears that he later sold 50% of the stake back to Blockchain Capital for around $11M.

In 2008, a Florida state court convicted Epstein of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.

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Blockstream Has No Connection, Says CEO

Meanwhile, Blockstream CEO Adam Back pushed back claims from Epstein Files regarding his ongoing connection with the convict.

“Blockstream has no direct nor indirect financial connection with Jeffrey Epstein, or his estate,” Back wrote on X.

One of the documents released by the U.S. DOJ corresponding to July 2014 says that Blockstream co-founder Austin Hill discussed the company’s seed round with Epstein and Joi Ito, then director of the MIT Media Lab.

“Hi Joi & Jeffrey; We are down to the wire on closing this round,” Hill wrote in an 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.”

In the Monday post, Adam Back noted that Blockstream met with Jeffrey Epstein, who was described at the time as a “limited partner in Ito’s fund.”

“That fund later invested a minority stake in Blockstream. A few months later, Ito’s fund divested its Blockstream shares due to a potential conflict of interest, and other concerns.”

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Pumpfun Unveils Investment Arm and $3 Million Hackathon

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Pumpfun Unveils Investment Arm and $3 Million Hackathon


PUMP rallied as much as 10% but erased its gains as crypto markets dipped.

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Spot Bitcoin ETF AUM Hits Lowest Level Since April 2025

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Spot Bitcoin ETF AUM Hits Lowest Level Since April 2025

Assets in spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs slipped below $100 billion on Tuesday following a fresh $272 million in outflows.

According to data from SoSoValue, the move marked the first time spot Bitcoin ETF assets under management have fallen below that level since April 2025, after peaking at about $168 billion in October

The drop came amid a broader crypto market sell-off, with Bitcoin sliding below $74,000 on Tuesday. The global cryptocurrency market capitalization fell from $3.11 trillion to $2.64 trillion over the past week, according to CoinGecko.

Altcoin funds secure modest inflows

The latest outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs followed a brief rebound in flows on Monday, when the products attracted $562 million in net inflows.

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Still, Bitcoin funds resumed losses on Tuesday, pushing year-to-date outflows to almost $1.3 billion, coming in line with ongoing market volatility.

Spot Bitcoin ETF flows since Jan. 26, 2026. Source: SoSoValue

By contrast, ETFs tracking altcoins such as Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL) recorded modest inflows of $14 million, $19.6 million and $1.2 million, respectively.

Is institutional adoption moving beyond ETFs?

The ongoing sell-off in Bitcoin ETFs comes as BTC trades below the ETF creation cost basis of $84,000, suggesting new ETF shares are being issued at a loss and placing pressure on fund flows.

Market observers say that the slump is unlikely to trigger further mass sell-offs in ETFs.

“My guess is vast majority of assets in spot BTC ETFs stay put regardless,” ETF analyst Nate Geraci wrote on X on Monday.

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Source: Nate Geraci

Thomas Restout, CEO of institutional liquidity provider B2C2, echoed the sentiment, noting that institutional ETF investors are generally resilient. Still, he hinted that a shift toward onchain trading may be underway.

Related: VistaShares launches Treasury ETF with options-based Bitcoin exposure

“The benefit of institutions coming in and buying ETFs is they’re far more resilient. They will sit on their views and positions for longer,” Restout said in a Rulematch Spot On podcast on Monday.

“I think the next level of transformation is institutions actually trading crypto, rather than just using securitized ETFs. We’re expecting the next wave of institutions to be the ones trading the underlying assets directly,” he noted.