A stream of Bitcoin donations has flowed in for Julian Assange, who is a fan of Bitcoin, following his arrest. This comes following a tweet from Wikileaks official Twitter account, urging individuals to contribute to a legal defense fund for Assange.



Assange was arrested on Thursday after Ecuador abruptly withdrew his asylum protection



The well-known Wikileaks founder Julian Assange recently made a wave of headlines all around the globe, as he was arrested in London earlier this week.



Specifically, he was arrested on April 11th at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been a resident since he was granted asylum at the embassy back in 2012. At the time, Assange was trying to evade Swedish and British arrest warrants.



Nevertheless, the fact that Ecuadorian Embassy personnel now reportedly willingly let British police forces enter the embassy to retrieve Assange has shocked observers all over the world.



Although public sentiment is split over whether this was truly the morally right course of action, Assange supporters are now actively chipping in with donations to a supposed defense fund for the Wikileaks founder.



Moreover, the official Twitter account for Wikileaks also promoted contributions to this legal defense fund in a tweet, although this tweet has since been deleted.



Bitcoin donations have already reached over $40,000



Furthermore, Bitcoin is allowing people all around the globe to contribute to Assange’s legal defense. The official Wikileaks Bitcoin wallet address has logged 381 transactions at the time of writing, amounting to roughly 8.12 BTC.



This translates to around $41,450 which, although not a mind-blowing amount, will surely help Assange to get the legal counsel he needs. Furthermore, other contributions are also being made through fiat currencies.



In addition to this, the Defend Wikileaks page also allows supports to donate using Zcash. The fact that donations can be made using cryptocurrencies should not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with Julian Assange.



In fact, the Wikileaks founder has previously been an outspoken Bitcoin fan. Back in 2017, Assange published a tweet stating that Bitcoin represented ”the real Occupy Wall Street”, a reference to the anti-consumerist movement which first made headlines in 2011.



This is certainly in line with Assange’s anti-government sentiment. It remains unclear what Assange’s fate will be, as well as whether or not Assange will be extradited to the United States.



Nevertheless, the support for Bitcoin donations to Assange’s defense fund shows how cryptocurrency can allow people all around the world to transact funds – and is certainly something the Wikileaks founder himself would be proud over.

Image Credits: “independent.co.uk “