A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) created 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 extradition to the United States following a court ruling in December that overturned a British court ruling barring extradition. He is currently locked up in a London prison where he has been since 2019.
Donations began pouring in on February 4 according to JuiceBox, the community funding platform that hosts the campaign. Funding accelerated over the weekend, doubling in the last 24 hours to the current level.
According to AssangeDAO’s Twitter feed, this is now JuiceBox’s largest Ethereum surge in history, surpassing that of ConstitutionDAO, which raised funds in November to purchase an original copy of the United States Constitution.
AssangeDAO is now the largest JuiceBox DAO surge in history surpassing that of ConstitutionDAO.
Congratulations everyone, this seriously exceeded our wildest expectations!#FreeAssangeNOW pic.twitter.com/MqhZv6CWTK
— AssangeDAO (@AssangeDAO) February 6, 2022
The comparison has been made in terms of ETH, which had a much higher price in November. At the time, the dollar value raised by ConstitutionDAO was around $49 million.
AssangeDAO describes itself as a “collective of cypherpunks” aiming to raise ETH in exchange for JUSTICE governance tokens. These will be used to bid on an NFT collection called “Censored” from digital artist Pak in collaboration with Julian Assange.
Proceeds from the sale will go to Assange’s defense fund for “legal fees and campaigns to raise awareness of the Julian extradition case.”
The @AssangeDAO has broken the $30 million mark in less than 3 days for its fundraiser to defend #WikiLeaks Publisher Julian Assange faces 175-year sentence for revealing war crimes
Contribute: https://t.co/LKIU3AbzL2
Information: https://t.co/W5eQ2x8PYd pic.twitter.com/O1PE0OzZdB— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 6, 2022
The genesis of AssangeDAO began in a Telegram group in mid-December, the day the US government won an appeal of a UK court ruling barring Assange’s extradition. The official website states that “if extradited to the United States, Assange faces 175 years in prison for publishing truthful information.”
The concept was inspired by FreeRossDAO, which raised $12 million to free Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Silk Road dark web marketplace.
Related: Julian Assange and Pak NFT Top Secret Collaboration Is Wikileaked
Julian Assange has been held in Belmarsh Prison in London, where he has been for the last 3 years. He had previously spent almost seven years locked up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, protected by asylum status.
This post AssangeDAO raises $38 million in donations to help free WikiLeaks founder
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