Epstein Files Reveal Failed Silicon Valley Coin During ICO Mania

In the sprawling release of Jeffrey Epstein’s legal documents, most eyes go straight to the salacious names. But buried in the emails and PDFs is a quieter story that perfectly captures the fever dream of late-2018 crypto: a slick venture fund pitching a tokenized late-stage tech vehicle called the Silicon Valley Coin (SVC), which ended up getting ghosted by Epstein himself.

The documents show Andra Capital, run by Haydar Haba and Paul Tuan, mounting a persistent multi-month campaign to bring Epstein into their fund. What started as a full-blown security-token offering evolved into a traditional LP fund rebranded around Tim Draper.

"Democratize Venture Capital" With Tokens

Andra’s original vision was pure 2018 ICO energy. They planned to raise up to $1 billion by selling up to 1 billion SVC coins at $1 each. These were Etheruem (ERC-20) tokens issued by a BVI company, giving holders indirect non-voting economic exposure to Andra Capital Fund LP in the Cayman Islands. Investors could pay in USD, Bitcoin, or Ethereum.

Key selling points from their Private Placement Memorandum and investor deck:

• 30%+ target IRR by investing in pre-IPO tech unicorns
• Liquidity on crypto exchanges (the big promise traditional VC couldn’t match)
• Option to convert traditional LP interests into tradable SVCs
• Early cash-out features without the usual 8–12 year lockup
• Top-tier service providers: Deloitte, Duff & Phelps, Apex, DLA Piper

The structure chart included in the files is a beautiful piece of 2018-era complexity, traditional LPs on one side, tokenized interests flowing through a BVI issuer on the other, with Andra entities skimming management and carried interest.

They even had a white paper, pro forma GP purchase model, which was offering Epstein equity in the whole infrastructure, and press mentions at the time (Decrypt, PYMNTS, SiliconANGLE, etc.) hyping the “Silicon Valley Coin” as a way for retail and global investors to get into late-stage tech. As we said, this was during the time of ICO mania.

Epstein Said "Interesting Structure, Not People"

Epstein’s team including primarily his assistant Lesley Groff, dutifully forwarded everything from Andra Capital to him including the PPM, deck, structure chart, multiple times between August and November 2018.

Epstein’s own notes are clinical and revealing. When he forwarded the materials to Joichi Ito at MIT Media Lab and Madars Virza (Zcash), he wrote:

“interesting structure , structure only not people”

And in another email, he said:

“a structure selling non voting interests. as coins”

He clearly parsed the mechanics but wanted zero personal involvement with the promoters and the project.

The Hard Sell and the Repeated "No"

Andra didn’t give up easily. In September 2018, the firm circulated a traditional private placement memorandum and pushed for follow‑up calls, but by October and November it had already begun a dramatic pivot, abandoning the token model entirely, rebranding the Cayman master fund as “Draper Global,” and presenting Tim Draper as both anchor investor and co‑manager.

They claimed the new structure would give them first access to the entire Draper Venture Network pipeline, including companies tied to DocuSign, Robinhood, and Coinbase, and boasted that they had closed $100 million in the first week with Goldman Sachs positioned as bookrunner for a planned $3-5 billion raise. To sweeten the deal, they offered a 0.5% management‑fee discount for early commitments and even dangled an in‑person meeting in New York or a direct call with Draper.

Every request was shut down. Epstein’s side replied with "no" or just saying "Jeffrey will not be available." Simple radio silence. The final emails in the chain show Andra still pushing after claiming big early traction, but the meeting never happened, and things went quiet from there.

This was part of the crypto madness of 2018 involving Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). Security tokens were supposed to revolutionize VC by adding liquidity and global access. Andra wasn’t the only fund trying it, they even partnered with Swarm Fund at one point, but the timing was brutal. Regulatory scrutiny was ramping up, the crypto winter was arriving, and many tokenized offerings began to fade away.

The pivot to "traditional paperwork LPs + Tim Draper branding" was a smart survival move. Andra Capital still exists today as a legitimate late-stage tech fund with Haba and Tuan still listed as managing partners on their website. Pitchbook says they are active with 18 investments and 7 exits, including SpaceX, Anthropic, and crypto exchange Kraken. The grand tokenized "Draper Global" $1B+ raise with Goldman doesn’t appear to have materialized in the headlines, but the firm quietly shifted to a more conventional evergreen structure.

Bottom Line

The Epstein files don’t show anything out of the ordinary with this investment, they show exactly what you’d expect in 2018: an ambitious crypto-VC fund chasing the ultimate high-net-worth whale with the hottest buzzword product of the moment. Epstein, ever the analyst, was intrigued enough by the structure to forward it to people like Joi Ito and Madars Virza… but had zero interest in the people behind it.

It’s a perfect time capsule. The Silicon Valley Coin was real. The hype was real. The liquidity promises were everywhere. And in the end, the ICO pitch died with a simple "No."

We created an Epstein Bitcoin Email archive to go through all the newly released Epstein emails relating to Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain, to search through all the communications for important information relating to this topic. Try it out!