Adam Back says Blockstream has no financial links with Jeffrey Epstein

TLDR

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Adam Back says Epstein had no direct or indirect financial link to Blockstream.
Epstein was a limited partner in a fund that once invested in Blockstream.
Back and Hill were named in emails discussing investments and travel plans.
The fund holding Blockstream shares later divested to avoid any conflict.

Back addressed the matter on Sunday via the social media platform X. “Blockstream has no direct nor indirect financial connection with Jeffrey Epstein, or his estate,” Back wrote.

The comments come as part of the public’s growing interest in the newly unsealed Epstein-related files. These files include more than six million pages and were released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Epstein Mentioned in Blockstream’s 2014 Seed Round Emails

The unsealed documents include email exchanges from 2014 that show Austin Hill, then CEO of Blockstream, discussing the company’s seed round with Epstein and Joi Ito. Adam Back was also included in those emails.

One email dated July 2014 shows Hill telling Epstein and Ito that the seed round was “10x oversubscribed” and mentions an increase in Epstein’s allocation from $50,000 to $500,000. “Looking forward to sitting down face to face again soon,” Hill wrote in the same email.

Another email thread involves Hill informing Epstein’s associate about arranging travel to St. Thomas, an island close to Epstein’s private island. Back’s social media post did not address these travel-related emails.

Limited Partner Role and Divestment Explained

In his statement, Back clarified that Blockstream was introduced to Joi Ito during its 2014 fundraising efforts. Ito, then the head of MIT Media Lab, was managing a fund where Epstein was a limited partner.

According to Back, that fund made a minority investment in Blockstream but later divested its shares. This was done to prevent any potential conflict of interest, though Back did not specify when this occurred.

Austin Hill later reposted Back’s explanation on X, aligning himself with the official position.

Crypto-Related Discussions Found in Other Epstein Files

The documents also reveal Epstein’s deeper interest in digital assets. In one exchange, Epstein and Peter Thiel discussed Bitcoin’s purpose. “It appears that there is little agreement on what Bitcoin is,” Epstein wrote in a 2014 email.

Other files show Hill advising Epstein and Ito that their support of both Stellar and Ripple conflicted with the goals of Blockstream. Hill suggested that supporting rival platforms could hurt Blockstream’s ecosystem.

In a separate email to Saudi officials, Epstein proposed creating a physical currency named “the Sharia” and a digital version using blockchain.

Public Scrutiny and Ongoing Questions

While Back has denied any financial ties between Blockstream and Epstein, criticism continues on social media. Many users questioned the timing of the statement, which came only after the release of the documents.

Back has not commented further beyond his initial post, and no legal action has been reported against anyone at Blockstream.