Free, Julian Assange! - Since the arrest in April 2019 of Julian Assange , founder of WikiLeaks, his group of whistleblowers has received regular donations of bitcoins (BTC). Today, the platform has just received nearly $ 280,000.
A donation of nearly 8.5 bitcoins
The Defense Fund of WikiLeaks was set up to help defend Julian Assange and other journalists of the organization. It of course accepts donations in fiat currencies, but also in cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Zcash (ZEC).
This January 4, good news fell for the defense of the whistleblower. The British judge, who was to rule on the extradition to the United States of Julian Assange, rejected this transfer of jurisdiction.
Judge Vanessa Baraitser indeed considered that the worrying mental state of the founder of WikiLeaks did not allow his extradition, even fearing a risk of "suicide attempt" .
The journalist is indeed facing 18 charges in the United States, including 17 under the American law against espionage . Following this latest judicial decision, WikiLeaks explains in a tweet that a request for release on bail from its founder will be filed this Wednesday, January 6 .
$ 615,000 worth of bitcoins from WikiLeaks defense fund
Coming back to the Defense Fund, many donations accompanied the British judge's decision in favor of Julian Assange. One of them, particularly massive , was spotted by Whale Alert , the monitoring system for large blockchain transactions:
“A donation of 8.48 BTC (281,195 USD) was made to the WikiLeaks Defense Fund. "
In total, the Defense Fund's wallet address now holds 19.66 BTC , or the equivalent of more than $ 615,000 . The incensurable nature of Bitcoin has helped WikiLeaks a lot, as the nonprofit has often been denied the ability to receive donations in state currency.
Although the rumors about the forgiveness of Assange by Donald Trump have not yet materialized, the whistleblower therefore seems to be able to count on his supporters in the cryptosphere to ensure his best defense. In a way, this is a fair return of things, since WikiLeaks trusted and adopted Bitcoin for these donations very early on as early as 2011.
