Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is poised to return to Australia and admit guilt to a single charge of conspiring and disclosing classified information. According to reports, he left Belmarsh maximum security prison after spending over 1,900 days there. In 2017, WikiLeaks published documents revealing Russia’s use of state surveillance to spy on Internet and cellphone users. Additionally, former CIA employee Joshua Schulte leaked the largest cache of classified data to WikiLeaks.
This led to Assange seeking to raise funds in Bitcoin after leading financial companies started denying payments to WikiLeaks. It was at this time that Bitcoin creator Nakamoto expressed concerns about an association with WikiLeaks potentially overwhelming the cryptocurrency in its early stages. The current extent of Assange’s Bitcoin holdings remains unclear, but the cryptocurrency community has found a way to connect cryptocurrency to his story. Following a 2021 U.K. High Court ruling allowing Assange’s extradition, his supporters established a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) named AssangeDAO to advocate for his release.