Julian Assange Freed but On-Chain Movement Demand Fund Transparency

As Julian Assange's prison term concludes, an on-chain movement demands transparency on funds raised for his defense. Following Assange's release from Belmarsh prison, the AssangeDAO (JUSTICE) token surged over 60% within 24 hours. The WikiLeaks founder, detained for over 1,900 days due to alleged U.S. Espionage Act violations, now has supporters calling for a detailed report on defense fund expenditures.

 
The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) was formed in December 2021 to financially support Assange's legal battles. According to core contributor Silke Noa, donors contributed approximately 16,593 Ether (ETH), valued at over $56 million in today's market. The Wau Holland Foundation managed and distributed around $37 million of these funds via a Safe (formerly Gnosis) multi-sig address, yet full transparency on spending is still awaited.

"Security reasons might have justified the lack of transparency to protect Julian's case in the past," Noa commented on X following Assange's release. She, along with others, urges the Wau Holland Foundation to disclose fund allocations for the defense efforts.

Assange, an early Bitcoin (BTC) investor, saw cryptocurrency as an alternative investment and payment method. In the early 2010s, he invested in BTC and considered accepting crypto payments following censorship from major financial entities like MasterCard. His release, facilitated partly by a DAO initiative, highlights crypto's potential as a transformative force in real-world scenarios.