After news broke out that Julian Assange, the former editor-in-chief of Wikileaks, who had been in a British prison for the last five years, is going free after a plea deal that saw his sentence commuted to time served, donations have been pouring left and right, including in Bitcoin (BTC), for his return home.
Specifically, Assange, an Australian citizen who had been fighting extradition to the United States on 18 charges regarding the publication of a massive amount of classified documents, currently owes the government of Australia a staggering $520,000 for the charter flight to Saipan and onward to his homeland.
Therefore, Assange’s family has pled with the public for funds to cover these expenses and to support his recovery after spending time in the British prison upon a deal that didn’t fully pardon him and has set up a cryptocurrency donation address for this purpose.
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Not long after this, someone paid an amount of more than eight Bitcoin to the crypto wallet in a single donation, worth nearly $490,000 at current prices, which should cover a large part of the costs for his retrieval, according to the transaction data shared by Bitcoin Archive in an X post on June 26.
Rise in crypto donations
Evidently, as the crypto sector continues to grow and evolve, it has become increasingly popular in the mainstream, including when donating to different causes. One example is political campaigns, such as the one of the former President and current presidential hopeful, Donald Trump.
As a reminder, aside from publicly voicing his support for the maiden crypto asset during an event at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Trump announced he would begin accepting contributions in the form of Bitcoin and other digital assets for his campaign, as Finbold reported on May 9.
Reportedly, this move sent the campaign team of his political opponent, the incumbent US President Joe Biden, into panic mode, leading it to sent a fundraising text to donors, warning them that “cryptocurrency executives and oil barons are coming out of the woodwork for Trump.”
More recently, Biden’s administration has made a surprising turn in tone towards the industry, as reports have appeared that his team has started approaching key participants in the crypto community, seeking their insights and advice on policy formulation going forward.
