Newly resurfaced documents from the Jeffrey Epstein files have shed light on the aggressive tribalism of the early cryptocurrency industry.
High-profile investors were pressured to view XRP and Stellar XLM supporters as threats to the Bitcoin ecosystem, according to a 2014 email chain analyzed by Ripple's former Chief Technology Officer David "JoelKatz" Schwartz.
"Stellar isn't so stellar" email
The controversy stems from an email dated July 31, 2014. It was sent by entrepreneur Austin Hill to a group of high-profile investors, including Reid Hoffman, Joichi Ito and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
HOT Stories Leaked Email to Epstein Framed XRP Supporters as Enemy, Ex-Ripple CTO SaysRipple CTO Emeritus Breaks Silence on XRP and XLM in Epstein FilesCrypto Market Review: Did XRP Downtrend End? Shiba Inu (SHIB) Taking a Beating, Bitcoin (BTC) Safe Above $80,000U.Today Crypto Digest: XRP Millionaires Awaken, Shiba Inu Buyers Step In, Dogecoin Sees 10,782% Rise in Futures Volume
In the email, titled "Stellar isn't so Stellar," Hill urges the investors to reconsider their financial support for projects led by Jed McCaleb, the co-founder of both Ripple and Stellar. Hill writes:
"Ripple, and Jed's new stellar are bad for the ecosystem we are building, and it does our company damage to have investors who are backing two horses in the same race."
You Might Also Like
Sat, 01/31/2026 - 10:00 Ripple CTO Emeritus Breaks Silence on XRP and XLM in Epstein FilesByDan Burgin
Hill goes on to request that the investors "reduce or take your allocation away," offering to explain the issues further in a call.
He meant that because he felt Ripple and Stellar were bad for the ecosystem, anyone who supported either XRP or XLM was an opponent/enemy.
Ultimatum: "pick a horse"
According to Leonidas Hadjiloizou, Austin Hill was using "allocation" as leverage.
In the venture capital world, being allowed to invest in a promising company (like Blockstream) is often considered a privilege.
Hill threatened to "reduce or take... allocation away" from Epstein and Ito regarding their investment in Blockstream.
He was essentially telling them they could not invest in Blockstream if they continued to support Ripple or Stellar. He forced them to choose one side of the "race."
"The sad part is, we really are all in this together, and this kind of attitude hurts everyone in the space," Schwartz said in a recent social media post.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
