AssangeDAO
AssangeDAO concludes raise with $53M to help Julian fight for freedom
The AssangeDAO pulled in 17,422 Ether from 10,000 people, with the funds set to be used to win the NFT auction that is supporting Assange’s legal battles.
The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) supporting Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s legal plight has concluded its raise, generating a whooping 17,422 Ether (ETH) worth roughly $53.7 million.
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the AssangeDAO intends to use the fund to bid on a one-of-one NFT from a drop called “Censored” by digital artist Pak in collaboration with Assange. The proceeds of the sale will go towards Assange’s defense fund and additional awareness campaigns as he fights extradition to the U.S. this month.
Assange has been languishing in a U.K. jail for the past three years, with U.S. prosecutors seeking to try him on espionage charges. Supporters say that Assange is a whistleblower, journalist and publisher.
BREAKING: Almost US $55m ($54.2m/ 17,422 ETH) raised by over 10,000 @AssangeDAO contributors in defense of #WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange at end of funding cycle
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 8, 2022
Fund now available for bidding on the @muratpak
'Clock' auction:https://t.co/d0vHsPWhkA
At the time of writing, Pak and Assange’s “One Thousand Thirty Four” one-of-one NFT has a current top bid of 4,242.42 Ether ($13 million) with the auction set to close later today. The NFT collection was launched on Feb. 7, which was also the deadline for Assange’s lawyers to plead their case against his extradition.
The Assange DAO’s $53.7 million figure marks the largest ever raise from a DAO using the community funding hosting platform Juicebox, ousting the widely popular ConstitutionDAO which raised $49 million from the community in late 2021 to bid on a copy of the 1st edition print copy of the United States Constitution.
More than 10,000 people backed the fundraiser, showing strong support for Assange and the values around transparency that he and Wikileaks stands for.
Just contributed 10 ETH to @AssangeDAO.
— Martin Köppelmann (@koeppelmann) February 4, 2022
It is a disgrace for our society that exposing war crimes condemns you to rot in prison. pic.twitter.com/ZNWUTVuRFe
Pak spoke to Artnet earlier this week, and outlined that Assange’s cause was precisely what they were looking for as the message behind their latest drop:
“I am in love with creating different mechanisms to communicate my messages. For ‘Censored,’ the drop needed a good reason to exist and Julian was just the perfect fit.”
“The biggest message is censored as usual,” they added.
Related: Wonderland’s treasury saga exposes the fragility of DAO projects today
The Censored drop also includes an open edition with unlimited mints within a specific time frame, and Pak stated that the proceeds will be donated to “information freedom, digital privacy, education, health, and human and animal rights” organizations.
“In other words, everything that is censored eventually returns to the people,” they said.
New DAO Supporting WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Raises Over $40,000,000
A new crypto project that aims to free embattled whistleblower Julian Assange is building up an impressive war chest. Referring to themselves as “a collective of cypherpunks,” the group behind AssangeDAO has successfully raised over $40 million in Ethereum (ETH) as part of a campaign to get WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange released from prison. The […]
The post New DAO Supporting WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Raises Over $40,000,000 appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
A DAO Aiming to Free Julian Assange Has Raised Over $40M
AssangeDAO raises $38M in donations to help free WikiLeaks founder
Donations to support Julian Assange’s fight for freedom have been pouring in over the weekend.
A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) set up to support the liberation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from prison has raised 12,569 ETH or around $38.8 million at current prices.
Assange is currently fighting extradition to the United States following a court ruling in December that overruled a British court ruling barring extradition. He is currently locked up in a London prison where he has been since 2019.
Donations started rolling in on Feb. 4 according to JuiceBox, the community funding platform hosting the campaign. Funding accelerated over the weekend, doubling over the past 24 hours to the current level.
According to the AssangeDAO Twitter feed, it is now the largest JuiceBox Ethereum raise in history, exceeding 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 raise in History exceeding that of ConstitutionDAO.
— AssangeDAO (@AssangeDAO) February 6, 2022
Congrats everyone this seriously exceeded our wildest expectations!#FreeAssangeNOW pic.twitter.com/MqhZv6CWTK
The comparison has been made in ETH terms, which was priced much higher in November. Back then, the dollar value raised by ConstitutionDAO was around $49 million.
AssangeDAO is described as a “collective of cypherpunks” aiming to raise ETH in return for JUSTICE governance tokens. These will be used to bid on a NFT collection called “Censored” by digital artist Pak in collaboration with Julian Assange.
The proceeds from the sale will go towards Assange's defense fund for “legal fees and campaigning to raise awareness about Julian's extradition case.”
The @AssangeDAO has now broken US $30 million barrier in less than 3 days for its fundraising which will go to defend #WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange - facing a 175 year sentence for revealing war crimes
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 6, 2022
Contribute: https://t.co/LKIU3AbzL2
Info: https://t.co/W5eQ2x8PYd pic.twitter.com/O1PE0OzZdB
The genesis of AssangeDAO began in a Telegram group in mid-December on the day that the U.S. government won its appeal of a U.K. court ruling that barred Assange’s extradition. The official website states “if extradited to the United States, Assange faces 175 years in prison for publishing truthful information.”
The concept was inspired by the FreeRossDAO which raised $12 million to free Ross Ulbricht, founder of the dark web marketplace Silk Road.
Related: Top secret Julian Assange and Pak NFT collaboration is wikileaked
Julian Assange has been held in London's Belmarsh prison where he has been for the past 3 years. He had previously spent almost seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, protected by asylum status.
A DAO Created to Free Julian Assange Has Raised $7.5 Million in Ethereum
A group of cypherpunks recently initiated a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in order to try and free the incarcerated Wikileaks founder and activist Julian Assange. So far, the DAO has raised $7.5 million in ether and the funds will be used to help with Assange’s legal fees and raise public awareness about his case. Assangedao […]