Jack Dorsey or Andrew Tate: Who Donated Bitcoins for Julian Assange?
3 min readJulian Assange is making headlines again. A whistleblower who published classified documents through his WikiLeaks platform has spent the past few years in prison. During this time his health deteriorated. The news that Assange would be released caused a stir two days ago. But the flight home and medical care cost the whistleblower hundreds of thousands of dollars. Costs covered by an anonymous bitcoin donor. It is now debated whether Andrew Tate or Jack Dorsey was behind the donation.
The case of Julian Assange
Julian Assange, an Australian journalist and activist, gained worldwide fame as the founder of WikiLeaks, a platform that publishes classified information and documents. In 2010, WikiLeaks gained international attention for publishing a large number of classified US military and diplomatic documents, including the explosive “Collateral Murder” video that showed a US helicopter attack in Iraq. These revelations have made Assange a central figure in debates about press freedom and government transparency, but have also brought him considerable legal and political trouble.
Since the founding of WikiLeaks, Assange’s life has been marked by legal disputes and escapes. After being wanted in Sweden in 2010 on allegations of sexual harassment and rape, he fled to Britain and later sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He remained there from 2012 to 2019 before being arrested by British police after Ecuador revoked his asylum. International reactions to his case are divided, with some hailing him as a champion of free speech and others seeing him as a threat to national security. Assange’s release was announced two days ago.
Julian is free!!!!
Words cannot express our immense gratitude to YOU- yes YOU, who have all mobilised for years and years to make this come true. THANK YOU. tHANK YOU. THANK YOU.
Follow @WikiLeaks for more info soon…pic.twitter.com/gW4UWCKP44
— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) June 25, 2024
Immediately upon release, Assange would have to face mountains of debt amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. But nothing is left of that now, as the whistleblower has received a bitcoin donation worth nearly $500,000.
JUST IN: Julian Assange and his wife are finally reunited following his release from prison, thanks to an anonymous Bitcoiner who donated 8 #BTC to cover his private jet costs to 🇦🇺 Australia 🙌
— Bitcoin News (@BitcoinNewsCom) June 26, 2024
Is Andrew Tate or Jack Dorsey behind the donation?
It didn’t take long for speculation to emerge as to who had donated the bitcoins to Assange. Assange was an early proponent of Bitcoin and used the cryptocurrency to fund his WikiLeaks platform. Since Andrew Tate commented with a gift emoji under a tweet discussing the donation, some users on X assumed that Tate was a noble donor.
🎁
— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) June 26, 2024
But now there is a new theory that Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter (now X) is behind the gift. Suspicions arose because at the time the bitcoin donation was made, Dorsey made a comment saying “Safe passage”, apparently wishing Assange a safe journey.
Detective work by @IwanRabbinstein shows it might have been Jack Dorsey, and not Andrew Tate, who sent the 8 #Bitcoin donation to Julian Assange 👀 pic.twitter.com/2vyDHwfzF7
— Bitcoin News (@BitcoinNewsCom) June 26, 2024
Whether it was Andrew Tate, Jack Dorsey, or an unknown third party is unclear. What is certain is that Assange will arrive in Australia debt-free, and blockchain sleuths will be busy for a while wondering who made the donation. After all, every transaction is traceable on the blockchain, but the people behind the wallets are anonymous.
