A DAO that raised $55M to save a man �

Meet AssangeDAO — one of the most powerful examples of how decentralisation can become a political tool

In 2022, the crypto community raised $53M in just 3 days (ultimately $55M) to support Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who was facing 175 years in prison in the US for publishing classified documents. This wasn’t a charity or a non-profit — it was a decentralised autonomous organisation, created by anonymous people on the internet to take action

How did it work?

AssangeDAO didn’t just collect donations. They partnered with digital artist Pak and launched an NFT series called Censored. The main piece was a 1/1 NFT called Clock, counting the days since Assange’s imprisonment

The DAO won the auction and purchased Clock for 16,593 ETH (~$55M). All contributors received the $JUSTICE token — not for profit, but as a sign of participation and a vote in the DAO

Where did the money go?

All funds were sent to the Wau Holland Foundation, which supports Assange’s legal defence and public awareness campaigns

So what happened?

The DAO helped:

— bring global attention back to Assange’s case
— attract mainstream media and the Web3 audience
— show the power of an anonymous internet community coming together around a shared cause

Just a group of people on the internet who raised $55M in three days to help free someone from prison — and in the end, they actually did. AssangeDAO accomplished its mission