A report surfaced on the web and social media recently that claims WikiLeaks has received over $46 Million in Bitcoin in its wallet address.
A thread was published on popular Bitcoin subreddit as well as got shared across social media network, Twitter. The controversial non-profit organization has reportedly amassed almost 4054 BTC which was equivalent to $46.2 Million as per Reddit post. (Note – the price may change due to fluctuations in the price of BTC).
Donations in Crypto
It was revealed that the amount is a collective fund associated with two wallets of WikiLeaks, which was changed in the year 2018. However, many believe that the fund was sent as a form of donation.
This platform was founded by Julian Assange back in 2006 as a non-profit media, aims to expose government secrets. The donations sent by people were actually intended to support this organization that leaks out the original documents from anonymous sources and leakers.
According to the earlier reports, the platform had launched its first BTC wallet in mid-June 2011 – but it is also assumed that the organization might have been using BTC before 2011 as well. This is because Satoshi Nakamoto back in 2010 refuse people to encourage BTC’s use for Wikileaks while refusing, Satoshi wrote;
No, don’t “bring it on”
The project needs to grow gradually so the software can be strengthened along the way.
I make this appeal to WikiLeaks not to try to use Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a small beta community in its infancy. You would not stand to get more than pocket change, and the heat you would bring would likely destroy us at this stage.
Considering WikiLeaks’s involvement in Bitcoin since 2011, it is believed that those donors/senders were actually early-crypto adopters. Moreover, the platform and its founder earned quite good popularity so far – Julian Assange’s recent arrest and extradition is one such example wherein many members from the crypto community spoke in favor of Assange. We saw over 40 crypto contributions (Including Bitcoin and ZCash (ZEC) made within a period of three hours.
However, the crypto amount would have resulted in a significant fortune if WikiLeaks remained his tone on holding the digital asset. A report in the year 2016 came out, discussing the total value of all BTC donation sent to WikiLeaks was counted at $22 million.
Nevertheless, to what extent this report of “$46 million in BTC” is accurate – is still uncertain but it is also assumed that the amount from such funds have been used to cover legal fees and to encourage WikiLeak’s nature of providing secretive information.
While asked Julian Assange about Bitcoin back in 2014, he wrote;
There are lots on Bitcoin in my book – on my thoughts on it, and on WikiLeaks’ history with it. Eric Schmidt and I conversed for a while about it, and I also included a lot of notes to expand on my views.
It’s a fascinating and complex subject, so I can’t possibly go through all of it. But here’s footnote 23 as a teaser:
Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.
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