Single bitcoin donation nearly covers Julian Assange’s jet and recovery costs

A single 8.07 BTC +0.40% ($496,000) donation late Tuesday nearly covered a full $520,000 emergency appeal goal for Julian Assange’s jet and recovery costs within hours of it going live.

The donation page includes fiat options via Crowdfunder and GoFundMe, as well as crypto donations via Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dash, Zcash, Dogecoin, XRP and Monero addresses.

The 8.07 BTC donation is the largest of a total 8.1 BTC ($498,000) in funds sent to the appeal via bitcoin, according to data from blockchain explorer Mempool. Donations to the other cryptocurrency addresses listed on the page were minimal. However, a further $376,000 in fiat donations so far meant the goal was easily surpassed.

“Assange will therefore arrive in Australia debt free thanks in large part to the generosity of a single Bitcoin whale,” Altana Digital Currency Fund CIO Alistair Milne posted on X.

Assange’s emergency appeal

The emergency appeal was put out by the Free Assange campaign and his wife Stella Assange on Tuesday morning after the WikiLeaks founder boarded flight VJ199 to the remote Pacific island of Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific, following his release from prison in the UK.

“Julian Assange has embarked on flight VJT199 to Saipan. If all goes well it will bring him to freedom in Australia. But his travel to freedom comes at a massive cost: he will owe $520,000 which he is obligated to pay back to the Australian government for the charter flight. He was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia,” the appeal states.

“In addition, and after 14 years of detention, including five years in maximum security prison, Julian’s health is in dire need of recovery. We are launching an emergency appeal to seek donations to help him cover the flight debt and substantial funds to ensure his recovery and well-being and safety upon his arrival. Every contribution counts,” it adds.

Assange pleaded guilty to a single charge in a courtroom on the island on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported , and was given a 62-month time-served sentence on account of the time he had already spent in prison.

The charter flight subsequently brought Assange back to Australia on Wednesday morning as a free man, bringing an end to his multi-year legal battle.

Assange’s espionage charges

Assange's case involves accusations of espionage against the U.S. government following his publication on WikiLeaks of a large cache of documents detailing alleged war crimes committed by U.S. armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The documents supplied to WikiLeaks came via Chelsea Manning, a whistleblower who was serving as a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq at the time.

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice brought multiple charges against the WikiLeaks founder, under the U.S. Espionage Act. If he was found guilty of these charges, the total maximum sentence he could face theoretically exceeded 170 years.

Assange was released from the UK's high-security Belmarsh prison after more than five years on Monday after entering into a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice, admitting to just one of the 18 offenses.

“You stand before me to be sentenced in this criminal action,” Judge Manglona said in court on Wednesday, according to Stella Assange. “I would note the following: timing matters. If this case was brought before me sometime near 2012, without the benefit of what I know now, that you served a period of imprisonment ... in apparently one of the harshest facilities in the United Kingdom.”

The judge reportedly said another significant fact was that the U.S. government indicated that there was no personal victim and the dissemination of information did not result in any physical injury.

“These two facts are very relevant. I would say if this was still unknown and closer to [2012] I would not be so inclined to accept this plea agreement before me," the judge added. “But it’s the year 2024 … [and] it appears this case ends with me here in Saipan. With this pronouncement, it appears you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man. I hope there will be some peace restored.”

Speaking to the Australian Parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was “very pleased” at the outcome of Assange’s case, according to Bloomberg.

AssangeDAO token rises

On Tuesday, AssangeDAO's token (JUSTICE) surged over 80% following Assange’s release from the UK prison. However, it has since fallen around 13% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data .

AssangeDAO was formed in February of this year, aiming to raise funds to fight for the freedom of the WikiLeaks founder. A member of AssangeDAO stated that over 11,000 ETH, equivalent to $37 million, had been allocated for legal defense and advocacy from the 16,593 ETH raised by AssangeDAO since its inception.