The arrest of Julian Assange in London has led to a surge in Bitcoin donations to WikiLeaks.

The sudden and unexpected arrest of Julian Assange from the Embassy of Ecuador in London has had a number of consequences. First and foremost, the vast majority of journalists decried the action of the Ecuadorian and UK governments. Anti-government pundits have also expressed their outrage over this course of events. However, one unforeseen result of Assange’s arrest is a big surge in Bitcoin donations to WikiLeaks.

Julian Assange: Fiend or Hero?

Most people have a decided point-of-view when it comes to Assange. He is either considered a champion of government actions transparency or a person who has put many lives in danger by publishing classified information.

Assange is charged with conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain U.S. government top secret information, which was then published through WikiLeaks. Manning served 7 years of a 35-year sentence before President Obama commuted her sentence.

Assange sought sanctuary in the Ecuadorian embassy in London as he was facing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges in 2012. He says he would have returned to Sweden to fight the charges but he had no guarantee that Sweden would not extradite him to the United States. He has remained in the Ecuadorian embassy until yesterday, April 11th, when the president of Ecuador revoked his sanctuary and allowed UK police to enter the embassy and take him into custody.

WikiLeaks Gets Spike in Bitcoin Donations

While one would expect people from different ideological perspectives to voice their approval or disgust over the arrest of Julian Assange, it seems a number of people are showing their opinion by making Bitcoin donations to WikiLeaks.

Since Assange’s arrest, there have been 339 donations (at the time of writing) made to WikiLeaks using BTC, totaling more than $35,000. Before the arrest, donations came in every other day or so.

This donation surge is appropriate as Julian Assange is a proponent of Bitcoin. He tweeted back in December 2017 that “Bitcoin is the real Occupy Wall Street.”

If you wish to donate to WikiLeaks, you can do so here. They have a number of options with two cryptocurrencies being accepted: Bitcoin and Zcash.

Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Espen Moe, YouTube/Guardian News, and Pixabay.