{"id":70485,"date":"2026-02-03T05:31:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T05:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=70485"},"modified":"2026-02-03T05:31:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T05:31:36","slug":"ripple-stellar-show-up-in-new-epstein-files-ex-cto-schwartz-reacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=70485","title":{"rendered":"Ripple, Stellar Show Up In New Epstein Files, Ex-CTO Schwartz Reacts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Ripple and Stellar were pulled into a fresh round of social-media speculation this weekend after newly surfaced emails from the Epstein document release appeared to reference the two projects in a 2014 investor dispute. Former Ripple CTO David Schwartz pushed back publicly, saying he knows of no direct links between Epstein and either network, and framed the episode as another example of tribal politics bleeding into crypto.<\/p>\n

Schwartz Reacts After Epstein Docs Mention Ripple, Stellar<\/h2>\n

The spark came from a screenshot circulating on X that shows an email chain in which Austin Hill<\/a> (co-founder of Blockstream) complained to a group of high-profile recipients, including Epstein, about investors allocating capital across competing projects. According to Schwartz, the document \u201cis an email from Austin Hill to Jeffrey Epstein explaining that Hill felt that support for Ripple or Stellar made someone an enemy\/opponent,\u201d adding that Hill likely shared similar views \u201cto many other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the image spread, some posts characterized the mere inclusion of Ripple and Stellar in the email as evidence of deeper involvement. Schwartz responded with a message that tried to separate inflammatory framing from what the document actually shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know of any connections between Jeffrey Epstein and Ripple, XRP, or Stellar. [I don\u2019t know of] any evidence anyone at Ripple or Stellar ever met with Epstein or anyone closely connected to him,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. \u201cThere are some indirect ties between Epstein and people connected to Bitcoin in various ways, but that\u2019s probably true of most very wealthy people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ripple<\/p>\n

Schwartz\u2019s first post on the thread captured the mood of the day, both suspicion and a reluctance to feed it. \u201cI hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but I wouldn\u2019t be at all surprised if this is just the tip of a giant iceberg,\u201d he wrote while linking to the DOJ-hosted file. He later argued the more corrosive issue was the \u201cenemy\/opponent\u201d mindset, writing that \u201cwe really are all in this together and this kind of attitude hurts everyone in the space.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the underlying 2014 email described in the source material, Hill is portrayed as objecting to backers funding multiple \u201chorses\u201d at once, treating support for Ripple or Stellar<\/a> as hostile to the bitcoin-centric \u201cecosystem\u201d he was building at Blockstream. Reports summarizing the chain say it was sent to Joichi Ito, Epstein, and Reid Hoffman, and included language that investors in both camps were \u201cbacking two horses in the same race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resurfaced email also revived an older fault line in how early projects structured themselves. In response to a user asking about Ripple versus Stellar\u2019s nonprofit posture, Schwartz said the idea was debated early on and that he opposed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discussed it in the early days. I was strongly against it because it seemed dishonest and borderline illegal to have a non-profit whose success was so tied to the gains of private parties,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt felt, at least to me, like Walmart<\/a> creating a non-profit to help educate people about how much money they could save by shopping at Walmart.\u201d<\/p>\n

At press time, XRP traded at $1.64.<\/p>\n

\"XRP<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ripple and Stellar were pulled into a fresh round of social-media speculation this weekend after newly surfaced emails from the Epstein document release appeared to reference the two projects in a 2014 investor dispute. Former Ripple CTO David Schwartz pushed back publicly, saying he knows of no direct links between Epstein and either network, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-70485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}