American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase had no idea that an investment from a decade ago would bring it so much negativity today. For context, the Brian Armstrong-led firm is being dragged online for receiving about $3 million from American financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, more than ten years ago.

The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) released documents suggesting that Epstein invested in Coinbase through Brock Pierce’s Blockchain Capital in 2014. This connection has raised questions among netizens, as some enthusiasts have gone in search of documents and other proofs that substantiate these claims.

The released documents included emails from July 2014 in which Austin Hill, Blockstream co-founder, discussed the company’s seed funding round with Epstein and Joi Ito. On one hand, Bitcoin researcher Kyle Torpey wrote:

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

He was speaking of the Epstein Files, a massive collection of documents related to the case of the pedophile that has unveiled the involvement of top industry players.

Apparently, investing such a lump sum secured Epstein a face-to-face meeting with Fred Ehrsam, one of Coinbase’s co-founders. According to a leaked email screenshot, “Jeff” is mentioned along with Ehrsam, indicating that the co-founder might have been aware of his involvement in Coinbase.

However, there are documents that shows Epstein sold about 50% of the stake back to Blockchain Capital for around $11 million.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back was also implicated in this matter, stirring up market reaction and significant backlash.

However, Back distanced himself from the Epstein episode in a statement released recently. His post on X reads, “Blockstream has no direct nor indirect financial connection with Jeffrey Epstein, or his estate.”

He further explained that Blockstream was only introduced to Ito at a 2014 investor roadshow. This eventually led to a meeting with Epstein, as a limited partner in Ito’s investment fund.

While it looks to find a way out of these allegations, Coinbase might focus on its prediction platform, which it launched a week ago. It collaborated with Kalshi to enable trading on real-world events, joining the most important trend in today’s crypto world.

The post Coinbase Dragged Over Early Investments from Jeffrey Epstein appeared first on Coinspeaker.

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