Key Takeaways
- JUSTICE rallied 300% as Julian Assange returned to X after two years of silence.
- AssangeDAO raised $53 million in 2022 to support Assange’s legal defense.
- The rally came on very low trading volume, with JUSTICE still down 97% from its peak.
“I’m back,” Assange posted on X on Thursday, sharing a post by Wikileaks with his picture and fueling the JUSTICE price rally from around $0.0000181 to $0.00008491 at the time of writing. The price was up more than 300% in a day, trimming its yearly losses to 12%.
No other details about Assange’s return were known at the time of writing. His sister, Stella Assange, confirmed that Julian’s official account was back and said more news was expected next week.
Huge Rally, Microscopic Volume
AssangeDAO was formed in 2022 to fund Assange’s legal defense, raising 16,593 EdaoTH (around $53 million at the time) to bid on a one-of-one NFT made by digital artist Pak in collaboration with Assange. The money was then used by the Wau Holland Foundation, which paid Assange’s legal costs.
Despite today’s rally, the JUSTICE token is still down 97% from its all-time high. However, the rally was also fueled by the token’s negligible trading volume, which stood at around $600 over the previous 24 hours before the rally. At the time of writing, volume had jumped above $90,000, although it remained minuscule. Meanwhile, the AssangeDAO X account also broke a one-year silence by welcoming Assange.
A similar sharp rally in JUSTICE’s price was reported by Bitcoin.com News in June 2024, when Assange was released from a U.K. prison. The rally was short-lived, ending in double-digit losses.
Bitcoin ties
In either case, multiple bitcoiners welcomed the Wikileaks founder, who was instrumental in Bitcoin adoption, on X.
“He was taken out for exposing MIC, FIC & TIC. Bitcoin kept @wikileaks alive. & now he’s back. Welcome,” wrote Simon Dixon, an early bitcoin investor, entrepreneur and author.
In late 2010, after Wikileaks published U.S. diplomatic cables, major financial services companies such as Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, and Bank of America all cut off the organization from receiving donations. In 2011, Wikileaks turned to bitcoin for donations, despite its creator Satoshi Nakamoto asking it not to use the cryptocurrency at the time. Nakamoto warned back then that it was “a small beta community in its infancy” that could suffer “collateral damage.” Meanwhile, an anonymous donor covered Assange’s $500,000 flight debt with an 8 BTC donation in 2024.
