As United States lawmakers continue to investigate the Jeffrey Epstein case and its relation to President Donald Trump, new information keeps coming to light. This time, it has been revealed that certain high-profile friends of Epstein spoke about Bitcoin in the sex offender’s Manhattan townhouse.
According to documents recently released by the U.S. Oversight Committee, Tether co-founder Brock Pierce and the former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers discussed Bitcoin in Epstein’s house after his conviction.
Epstein’s Emails Released
Epstein was convicted in 2008 and died in 2019. However, the discussion between Pierce and Summers likely took place after 2011. This conversation followed a scientific conference that Epstein hosted, named Mindshift.
Pierce, a child actor who starred in Disney Films like First Kid and The Mighty Ducks, co-founded Tether in 2014, although in a passive role. He transferred his full ownership and relinquished control of the company in 2015. Since then, he has held no roles or positions. Tether has grown into one of the most prominent crypto firms, issuing the largest stablecoin by market capitalization.
The just-released emails revealed that a New York Magazine article was going to reference the Bitcoin discussion in 2015. However, the story has not been published to date. Pierce, who was a Bitcoin advocate at the time, described himself as the most active investor in the leading cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin Conversations in Epstein’s House
During the discussion, Summers said he saw opportunities with Bitcoin. However, he was skeptical about getting involved with the digital asset because of the potential damage to his reputation if his investment went sideways, especially given bitcoin’s rapid fluctuations. Summers said he could go from being seen as “a figure of some probity and some intelligence” to one with much less of the qualities he mentioned.
On the other hand, Pierce insisted that there would be some “low-quality characters playing early” in the crypto space, before the sector gets recognition. At the time, the concept of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency was nascent, and many traditional finance industry big names expressed cynicism toward the industry.
It is worth noting that other high-profile industry participants were present during the Bitcoin discussion. One of them is PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. A 2024 Reuters report disclosed that Thiel’s venture capital company, Founders Fund, had purchased bitcoin in 2014 and was one of the earliest institutional investors in the project.
While Pierce claims his interactions with Epstein were limited to just Bitcoin, information obtained from the emails suggests the sex offender may have played a larger role in the child actor’s business ventures.