A DAO Aiming to Free Julian Assange Has Raised Over $40M

AssangeDAO has raised 13,268 Ethereum ahead of Pak’s NFT auction dedicated to Julian Assange. 

DAO Raises $41M for Julian Assange

AssangeDAO has received over $41 million worth of Ethereum to help free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. 

Through a still-running raise that launched on Feb. 4, AssangeDAO has received 13,268 Ethereum worth around $41.48 million through a crowdfunding platform called JuiceBox.  

The aim of the crowdfund is to bid in an online auction for an NFT collection called Censored, which was created by Pak in partnership with Assange. The proceeds from the sale will go to Assange’s legal fund and increasing public awareness on his case. Contributors to the DAO will receive governance tokens with the ticker symbol JUSTICE, which will be used to vote on key decisions affecting the DAO. 

Launched in December 2021, AssangeDAO describes itself as a “collective of cypherpunks fighting for the liberation of Julian Assange.” DAOs typically form on Ethereum and are quickly gaining popularity as a way of coordinating groups in a decentralized manner via the blockchain. AssangeDAO is the latest DAO that’s gained significant traction in support of a specific cause, following other similar ventures like ConstitutionDAO and FreeRossDAO. In this case, the DAO is hoping to raise funds in a bid to free Assange. 

An Australian-born activist and the founder of WikiLeaks, Assange gained notoriety after his publication reported on alleged acts of corruption within the U.S. government, sharing classified records and anonymous sources.

Assange and his work at WikiLeaks came to the public spotlight after a series of highly-controversial exposes involving the U.S. military were released in 2010. WikiLeaks was also among the first websites to accept Bitcoin and helped bring mainstream exposure to the asset early into its lifetime.

The U.S. government launched a criminal investigation into Assange and charged him with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 by leaking classified information. Assange famously went on the run, avoiding extradition to Sweden before taking refuge at the Embassy of Ecuador in London in 2012. Assange’s asylum was withdrawn in 2019 and he was arrested for breaching the Bail Act. He’s currently imprisoned in London fighting extradition to the U.S. 

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owns ETH.