AssangeDAO Raises $38M in Donations to Help Free WikiLeaks Founder

The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) formed to support the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has raised 12,569 ETH, or about $38.8 million at current prices.

Assange is currently fighting for extradition to the United States. In December, a court ruling overturned a British court ban on extradition. He has been held in a London prison since 2019.

According to JuiceBox, a community funding platform that hosts the event, donations started rolling in on Feb. 4. Funding accelerated over the weekend, doubling in the past 24 hours to current levels.

According to AssangeDAO’s twitter message, this is currently the largest financing in the history of JuiceBox Ethereum, surpassing ConstitutionDAO, which raised funds to purchase the original U.S. Constitution last November.

The comparison is done in ETH, and prices are much higher in November. At the time, the dollar value of what ConstitutionDAO had raised was approximately $49 million.

AssangeDAO has been described as a “cypherpunk collective” aiming to raise ETH in exchange for the JUSTICE governance token. These will be used to bid on an NFT collectible called “Censored” by digital artist Pak in collaboration with Julian Assange.

Proceeds from the sale will go to Assange's defense fund for "legal fees and a campaign to raise awareness of Julian's extradition case".

The origins of AssangeDAO began in a Telegram group in mid-December, the day the U.S. government won its appeal against a U.K. court ruling barring Assange’s extradition. "If extradited to the U.S., Assange faces 175 years in prison for publishing truthful information," the official website states.

The concept was inspired by FreeRossDAO, a project that raised $12 million to free Ross Ulbricht, founder of darknet marketplace Silk Road.

Julian Assange has been held in London's Belmarsh Prison for the past three years. He had previously spent nearly seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London under the protection of asylum status.