WikiLeaks is one of the most famous organizations in the world. In its essence, WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organization designed to publish leaked information and classified media provided by various anonymous sources.
It was founded back in 2006 by Julian Paul Assange – an Australian activist, publisher, and editor. He was arrested in 2019 in London, facing a charge in the United States of conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer network in 2010.
Since WikiLeaks is a non-profit organization, it is supported by donations from individuals or entities who support their cause and operations. However, because they had posted very sensitive information on a number of topics, many vendors blocked payments to the organization. These include Visa, MasterCard, AmEx, etc.
This is why they’ve turned to the one form of currency that is impossible to censor – cryptocurrency.
WikiLeaks crypto donations
According to the organization’s official website, the options currently available for donating crypto to WikiLeaks include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, ZCash, Monero, and Ethereum.
Let’s go ahead and take a look at each of the provided addresses to see how much money WikiLeaks has received to date.
the Bitcoin address received a total of 30.45 BTC, with a current value $ 1.51 million. As of this writing, the final balance is slightly below 9 BTC.
The first Bitcoin Cash address has received a total of 225.2 BCH, currently worth $101,800. None of the coins has been moved. The second Bitcoin Cash address contains 0.25 BCH.
the Litecoin address received a total of 163.07 LTC, which is currently worth approximately $ 25,680. None of the pieces have been moved so far.
The ZCash address has received a total of 84.01 ZEC on its transparent balance, and none of it has been used. This is currently worth around $13,800.
the Ethereum address appears to be the second preferred donation destination as it contains 145.45 ETH with a current value of around $ 587,883.
We were unable to track how much XMR (Monero) the organization has received. Interestingly enough, though, someone also donated 1 CryptoKtties NFT.
The sum of the above number is just over $ 2.2 million.
Better than Fiat?
Back in 2017, the founder Julian Assange claimed that WikiLeaks had made a 50,000% return on Bitcoin after investing in the cryptocurrency back in 2010.
Interestingly enough, the Tweeter who claimed it was released in October 2017, when Bitcoin’s price was around $ 5,000. Later that year, that number would have been closer to 200,000% ROI, given that BTC peaked at around $ 20,000 at the time.
Today, the ROI would be even higher as BTC is currently trading at slightly below $50K.
Elsewhere, it was reported earlier today that Assange had suffered a stroke in Belmarsh Prison – a maximum security prison where he is being held on remand.
