House Oversight Committee documents released this week confirm Jeffrey Epstein provided funding to MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative in 2015, which paid Bitcoin Core developers. MIT Media Lab later participated in three Federal Reserve CBDC pilot programs.
The documents, part of over 20,000 pages from Epstein’s estate, include an April 25, 2015 email from MIT Media Lab Director Joichi Ito to Epstein stating: “Used gift funds to underwrite this which allowed us to move quickly and win this round. Thanks.”
The message came just 10 days after MIT launched the Digital Currency Initiative, designed to provide stable funding for Bitcoin Core developers after the Bitcoin Foundation collapsed amid bankruptcy and scandal.
MIT Stepped In After Bitcoin Foundation Collapse
The DCI formed in 2015 specifically to fund Bitcoin Core developers following the Bitcoin Foundation’s implosion. The foundation had been Bitcoin’s primary institutional backer but faced mass resignations after naming Brock Pierce, who faced lawsuits over alleged abuse of minors, to its board.
In the forwarded email to Epstein, Ito described how MIT responded to the vacancy: “Many organizations scrambled to step into the vacuum created by the foundation and ‘take control’ of the developers. We moved quickly talking to all of the various stakeholders and the three developers decided to join the Media Lab.”
The three developers were Gavin Andresen, Wladimir van der Laan, and Cory Fields. Van der Laan told The Rage he didn’t know about Epstein’s funding and noted DCI funding “is not very transparent, definitely not back in the day.”
Leon Black Donation Confirmed Through Epstein
The Epstein emails also confirm private equity investor Leon Black made donations to MIT Media Lab with Epstein’s involvement. A February 2019 email from Ito to Epstein states: “Just to let you know. We were able to keep the Leon Black money.”
Epstein responded: “No problem- Trying to get more black for you.”
Black, former CEO of Apollo Capital, later acknowledged paying Epstein $158 million for what he described as financial and estate planning advice. The documents show Epstein facilitated at least $7.5 million in donations to MIT Media Lab, including $5 million from Black and $2 million from Bill Gates. Internal MIT emails described these contributions as “directed” by Epstein.
MIT Lab Participated in Federal Reserve CBDC Pilots
MIT Media Lab participated in three separate Federal Reserve central bank digital currency pilot programs. Project Hamilton, a joint research initiative between the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative, ran from 2020 to 2022 and explored the technical architecture for a hypothetical retail CBDC.
Project Cedar involved the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street, and the Bank for International Settlements, with participation from MIT Media Lab. The Regulated Liability Network pilot similarly included MIT among its participants, alongside the BIS.
In 2017, Bitcoin implemented the SegWit upgrade, a technical change to the protocol’s structure. MIT developers funded through the DCI contributed to Bitcoin Core development during this period.
Epstein made his only public comments about Bitcoin that year, describing it in an interview as functioning “as a store of value” rather than primarily as a currency.
Chain Street’s Take
The House Oversight documents establish a verifiable timeline: Epstein provided funding to MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative in 2015, which paid Bitcoin Core developers.
The same MIT Media Lab later participated in Federal Reserve CBDC pilot programs starting in 2020. These facts are now on the public record.
What remains unclear is whether Epstein understood the technical work he was funding, what his motivations were, or whether there was any coordination between the Bitcoin and CBDC work at MIT.
The documents don’t answer these questions, they simply show that one institution, funded in part by a convicted financier, worked on both decentralized and centralized digital currency projects. The connection merits further investigation by journalists and researchers with access to MIT’s internal records.
