A wave of viral social media posts claimed that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein invented Bitcoin. The speculation was triggered by doctored emails circulating online, purporting to show Epstein claiming authorship of Bitcoin under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
However, France24's Truth or Fake segment says that these claims are baseless and the email was not released in the recent tranche of the Epstein Files.
The name Satoshi Nakamoto is used by the person who created Bitcoin, whose identity is a mystery.
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"Little digital gold mine"
The narrative stems from an email that was allegedly sent by Epstein to his right-hand woman, Ghislaine Maxwell, on October 31, 2008.
This email, circulating on platforms like X and Reddit, claimed that Epstein was behind the pseudonym Satoshi and described Bitcoin as a “little digital gold mine ready for the world.”
The email read, “Ghislaine, the 'Satoshi' pseudonym is working perfectly. Our little digital gold mine is ready for the world. Funding secured.”
{{/usCountry}}The email read, “Ghislaine, the 'Satoshi' pseudonym is working perfectly. Our little digital gold mine is ready for the world. Funding secured.”
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Why is the email fake?
On closer scrutiny, the document was proven fake by France24, spotting formatting errors such as two “To:” lines.
France24 also said that there have been 24 results for the word "Satoshi" in the U.S. Department of Justice’s official archive of the Epstein Files, none of which match the email document circulating online.
The phrase “little digital gold mine” also does not bear any result when searched in the DOJ archive of the Epstein Files.
Moreover, the email ID in the email (jepstein@financial.net) is different from the one Epstein Files regularly indicates (jeevacation@gmail.com).
The France24 fact-check specifically labeled these doctored messages as false and stated that Epstein was not in fact the creator of Bitcoin and was certainly not Satoshi Nakamoto.