Despite Epstein's passing, Silicon Valley's ideological resistance to regulation and the dark, unaccountable influence of crypto politics in democratic elections remain one of his most destructive legacies.
Author: Byline Times
Translation by: Deep Tide TechFlow
Original link: In Putin’s Orbit: The Crypto Politics of Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Thiel
Deep Tide Overview: This article reveals how Jeffrey Epstein leveraged his complex international network to push cryptocurrency to the center of geopolitics. Through recently disclosed emails, it outlines the intricate connections between Epstein, Silicon Valley tycoon Peter Thiel, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, and high-ranking Russian officials. Epstein not only suggested to Russia the use of Bitcoin to "leapfrog" the financial system but also invested in Blockstream at critical moments to sustain Bitcoin core development and was deeply involved in Thiel's venture capital firm. These early crypto-political maneuvers are now profoundly influencing global democratic elections and the struggle for state power, becoming one of Epstein's most secretive and destructive legacies.
In 1957, when the Soviet Union launched its first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into space, the Western world was caught off guard by a technological and cultural revolution that had gone largely unnoticed for the past decade.
In a 2013 email, Jeffrey Epstein quoted the metaphor of "Sputnik" to a senior Russian official, stating that "Russia is in a leading position in finance, and the same situation could happen now." He argued that Russia should not merely imitate Silicon Valley and chase after Microsoft, Apple, and Google, but could achieve leapfrog development for global society through a new type of currency and securitization, "by reinventing the 21st-century financial system."
The Russian official was Sergey Belyakov. After graduating from the FSB (Federal Security Service) spy academy, Belyakov served as a senior advisor to Oleg Deripaska, one of Vladimir Putin's most loyal oligarchs and international agents—Deripaska himself was a close collaborator of Epstein and Labour colleague Peter Mandelson. By 2013, he had become the Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia.
Epstein reminded Belyakov that he had helped establish the U.S. derivatives market in the 1970s, which was a precursor to "the more advanced disruptive securitization schemes that technology now makes possible."
Epstein insisted that Russia had a unique advantage in executing the "grand vision of establishing a global new currency… which is much larger than any single project conceived by any government, and its core is not difficult to achieve."
He had reason to believe that his words would be heard at the highest levels.
In a letter dated May 22, 2013, Epstein revealed: "Putin asked me to be present at the economic conference he is hosting in St. Petersburg. I declined. If he wants to meet, he needs to set aside real dedicated time and privacy."
Caption: Clues about Epstein's relationship with the Kremlin
This was not baseless chatter. Epstein shared this information with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who would meet Putin in person a few weeks later and could easily verify this claim through Kremlin channels.
In January 2014, Thorbjørn Jagland (then Secretary-General of the Council of Europe) wrote to Epstein, stating that he was planning to meet with the Russian president in Sochi. Epstein told Jagland to "explain to Putin that there should be a complex Russian version of Bitcoin," calling it "the most advanced financial tool globally."
This is the prism through which to understand the rest of the crypto network built around Epstein, Vladimir Putin, Peter Thiel, and Steve Bannon.
Social Capital
Peter Thiel, founder of Palantir, a core figure in the so-called "PayPal Mafia" alongside Elon Musk, is an enthusiastic follower of cryptocurrency, valuing its potential to provide alternatives to government-controlled fiat currency. He has claimed: "Bitcoin is what PayPal should have been."
He has long been a target of Epstein.
As early as 2012, Epstein received an email from fintech entrepreneur Ian Osborne suggesting they "grab a drink with Peter Thiel," stating that Thiel was "the best person to study currency" and linking him to Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund.
In 2013, Epstein urged former Israeli minister Ehud Barak to "spend some real time with Peter Thiel."
By July 2014, Thiel and Epstein were exchanging emails regarding Bitcoin regulation at the New York Stock Exchange. In September of the same year, Epstein hosted meetings with Thiel and William Burns, who was then Deputy Secretary of State in the Obama administration and is now the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) director.
By 2015, Epstein proposed Thiel as one of the people Belyakov should meet. Following Epstein's suggestion, Belyakov contacted Thiel directly, who asked his executive assistant to arrange a face-to-face meeting with him in July 2015.
Epstein had multiple interests at play here. First was cryptocurrency. Emails from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) show that Joi Ito requested and accepted donations from Epstein, which helped pay the salaries of Bitcoin Core developers after the Bitcoin Foundation collapsed. Another email thread shows that Epstein was involved in the seed round financing of Blockstream, a Bitcoin infrastructure development company in 2014, increasing his allocation from $50,000 to $500,000 after Ito requested more shares in an oversubscribed deal.
However, just as Thiel was interested in blockchain currency, surveillance and data systems like Palantir, Epstein also joined in, investing $40 million in Thiel's Valar Ventures. According to Ehud Barak, Thiel and Epstein "co-owned" the firm and used it to invest in the Israeli surveillance technology company Carbyne.
(Peter Thiel's spokesperson later denied this, stating that Epstein was merely a "limited partner (LP).")
As Epstein and Thiel aligned financially, their political inclinations also converged. Both were early supporters of Donald Trump during his first presidential term, which was unusually significant. A brief exchange in emails captures the tone of this relationship. Epstein wrote to Peter Thiel: "I love your exaggeration about Trump, that's not a lie," and then suggested Thiel "come see me in the Caribbean."
Thiel broke ranks with most of Silicon Valley, publicly supporting Trump and injecting millions into pro-Trump super PACs. Epstein's communications show he closely monitored Trump's and Hillary's polling, campaign team personnel, and appointments related to Bitcoin and fintech.
During his speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention, Thiel seized the opportunity on Trump's coronation platform to criticize the "financial bubble" and praise "new currencies," later telling the audience that Bitcoin could be "China's financial weapon" or a hedge against the dollar's reserve status.
As Russia's interference in the election escalated through large social media offensives and hacking of Hillary's campaign emails, Epstein also arranged a luncheon at his New York townhouse, attended by Trump's supporters Thiel, Tom Barrack, and Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin—a seasoned Kremlin operator.
After Churkin's sudden death in 2017, Epstein emailed Thiel saying: "My Russian ambassador friend has passed away. Life is short, let's eat dessert first."
"Brexit is Just the Beginning"
Epstein was a frequent visitor to the UK, even beyond his connections with Ghislaine Maxwell and Andrew Mountbatten, closely monitoring British finance and politics.
In recently disclosed information and emails, he viewed the June 2016 vote for the UK to leave the EU as a political reshuffling and trading opportunity—financially shorting it and politically leveraging it. As he wrote to Peter Thiel about the chaos triggered by the referendum: "Brexit is just the beginning."
To achieve broader goals, in addition to maneuvering in Silicon Valley and Russia, Epstein invested significant time and intellectual capital in a major project led by former Trump campaign chief, White House Chief of Staff, Breitbart publisher, and Cambridge Analytica co-founder Steve Bannon, who had just lost his position as White House Chief of Staff and was seeking a new role.
He initially found opportunities in 2017 within the pan-European populist "movement" (The Movement) founded by allies like Nigel Farage's partner Laure Ferrari and People's Party leader Mischaël Modrikamen, which was initially led by Bannon's friend—Nigel Farage.
The organization, registered in Brussels, aimed to unite "Europe's populist and conservative movements," defending "national sovereignty" and "effective national borders."
Behind the scenes, Jeffrey Epstein became a funder and strategist for Bannon's movement, providing financial advice on how to circumvent financial regulations, offering transportation and accommodation, and introducing key figures in Europe.
During the tumultuous Brexit transition period, as Theresa May's government struggled to find a proposal acceptable to the pro-Brexit right, Bannon was flying to the UK to organize opposition forces.
In 2018, Bannon told Epstein he was meeting Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg to organize their overthrow of Theresa May. Writer Michael Wolff wrote to Epstein stating he was the intermediary between the leadership challenger Boris Johnson.
However, the UK was just one stop in Bannon's international populist agenda, and he soon texted Epstein about his broader European ambitions, claiming: "My current advisory role covers the National Front (Front National), Salvini's League, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Swiss People's Party, Orban, the Land and Freedom Party, Farage—next May is the European Parliament elections—we can increase from 92 seats to 200—block any crypto legislation or anything we want."
By 2019, when Theresa May was replaced by Boris Johnson, Bannon was ecstatic: "May is gone… we really crushed them… we are unstoppable."
Even then, cryptocurrency had never left the agenda, with Bannon agreeing: "Cryptocurrency is money, blockchain is equivalent to Internet 2.0."
The Legacy of Crypto Politics
The UK left the EU in 2020. Epstein was arrested and subsequently died in prison. Farage's UK Independence Party (UKIP) was replaced by his more domestically focused Reform UK. However, the lessons about fintech and its potential to reshape or disrupt democracy have not disappeared.
When Farage's confidant, former UKIP MEP and Reform UK Wales leader Nathan Gill was arrested in September 2021 on suspicion of receiving pro-Russian bribes, he was actually on his way to attend a Kremlin-backed forum on Russia's DEG electronic voting system.
He was scheduled to give a speech titled "The same technology that empowers our cryptocurrency will change the way we vote," explicitly linking blockchain to electoral infrastructure.
Subsequently, Farage's Reform UK became the first UK political party to solicit cryptocurrency donations through an overseas processor that was not fully regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) — precisely the kind of opaque funding channel that anti-corruption experts had warned about.
Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance — whose Ohio Senate campaign received significant funding from Thiel and echoed Thiel's grievances against the "Deep State" and globalism — is now at the core of Trump's agenda as the clearest advocate for national conservatism within the government.
Vance's rise has implanted Thiel's worldview into the executive branch: this politics views technology (from surveillance companies like Palantir to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies) as tools of state power and civilizational competition, rather than neutral infrastructure.
In contrast to the email Epstein sent to Moscow in 2013 via Sputnik — urging Russia to "reinvent the 21st-century financial system" by creating "a new type of currency on a global scale" — the various aspects of the crypto-political project are laid bare through Epstein's documents.
Although Epstein is no longer alive, the cryptocurrency infrastructure he helped save, Silicon Valley's ideological resistance to regulation, and the dark and unaccountable influence of crypto politics in democratic elections remain one of his most destructive legacies.
Updated on February 5, 2026, incorporating comments from Thiel's representatives regarding Epstein's role in Valar Ventures.
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