WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange released from prison, how much crypto does he own?

The WikiLeaks founder is set to return to Australia after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy and disclosing classified information.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will return to Australia and plead guilty to single charges of conspiracy and disclosing classified information. The plea agreement, which has not yet received judicial approval, marks a significant development in the long-running legal battle between the Australian activist and the US government.

Assange faces 62 months in prison, but is unlikely to serve additional time given he has already spent an equivalent amount of time in Belmarsh Prison in the United Kingdom, according to Reuters, citing proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands WikiLeaks, 25 In June, he confirmed via an X post that Assange had “left Belmarsh maximum security prison” after spending more than 1,900 days there.

JULIAN ASSANGE FREE

Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June after spending 1,901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and released at Stansted airport in the afternoon.

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 24, 2024

Founded in 2010, WikiLeaks made headlines when it leaked hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The organization published documents in 2017 revealing how Russia used state surveillance to spy on internet and mobile phone users.

The plea agreement follows the February conviction of former CIA software engineer Joshua Adam Schulte, who was sentenced to 480 months in prison for espionage, hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI and child pornography. Schulte’s crimes included the leak of the largest cache of classified data to WikiLeaks.

“The herd is coming towards us”

WikiLeaks’ journey intersects with the world of cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin. At one point, Assange attempted to raise funds in BTC after VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Amazon and other financial companies began rejecting payments to WikiLeaks.

In a 2014 Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session, Assange recalled that Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto opposed WikiLeaks, which was using the nascent crypto in 2010. At the time, Nakamoto expressed concern that the partnership with WikiLeaks could overwhelm Bitcoin in its infancy.

“I call on WikiLeaks not to try to use Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a small beta community in its early stages. “You can’t stand to have more than pocket change, and the warmth you bring will probably destroy us at this stage.”

Satoshi Nakamoto

A few days later, before mysteriously disappearing, Nakamoto emphasized his stance on possible consequences from the WikiLeaks-cryptocurrency tie-up: “WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet’s nest and the swarm is coming towards us.” Despite this, Assange is still investing in Bitcoin and is reportedly making a 50,000% return. The current size of Bitcoin holdings remains unclear.

One way or another, the crypto community has found a way to connect cryptocurrency to Assange’s story. Following the UK Supreme Court decision in 2021 allowing Assange’s extradition, his supporters formed a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called AssangeDAO to advocate for his release. The campaign raised more than 17,400 ETH, with contributions from notable crypto figures like Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

But then AssangeDAO faced scrutiny over transparency issues, with blockchain analysis firm SlowMist detecting suspicious transaction patterns suggestive of “soft rug pulling.”