In a recent X post, AssangeDAO member Silke Noa revealed that a significant portion of the 16,593 ETH allocated for legal defense and campaigning by AssangeDAO’s The Clock has been utilized. Out of this amount, an estimated 11,000 Ether, valued at $37 million, has been spent on these efforts, as reported by Noa.
The allocation of 16,593 Ether (ETH) was managed by the Wau Holland Foundation through their Safe.global multisig wallet address, according to Noa’s statement. This substantial financial commitment was made in an effort to secure the freedom of Julian Assange, the Australian journalist and activist who founded WikiLeaks, an influential platform known for publishing classified and sensitive documents. Assange has been detained since April 2019.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Harry Halpin, CEO of Nym, emphasized the urgency of Julian Assange’s legal situation. Halpin noted that Nym recognized the financial strain faced by Assange’s legal team and saw an opportunity to utilize fundraising efforts to support his legal defense.
Joshua Bate, a core team member of AssangeDAO, shared with Cointelegraph that the funds raised were sourced from both on-chain and cypherpunk communities. This approach not only generated awareness about Assange’s predicament but also mobilized decentralized community action.
Bate also revealed that the raised funds were used to acquire a distinctive non-fungible token (NFT), known as the Pak NFT, through on-chain transactions. This unique NFT, created in collaboration with Julian Assange, has played a significant role in the fundraising efforts of AssangeDAO.
Moreover, another core team member of AssangeDAO, who played a crucial role in designing the governance structure of the organization, described the acquisition of the Pak NFT as a historic event. They highlighted the unprecedented involvement of the NFT community in contributing to the release of an individual from imprisonment, marking a significant milestone.
Despite the progress made, the members of AssangeDAO emphasized the need for caution and restraint, acknowledging that there can be no cause for celebration until the situation is fully resolved.