Julian Assange Reaches Plea Deal With U.S. DoJ

• Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange is now a free man after he struck a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice.

• Wikileaks and crypto have an intertwined history.

The Wikileaks co-founder, who spent five years in a U.K. jail cell and nearly seven years holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London, boarded a private jet at Stanstead airport and left the country, WikiLeaks announced on X.

Assange’s departure from the U.K. follows prolonged negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice, culminating in a deal that has not yet been formally finalized.

Assange was arrested in the U.K. for breaching his bail conditions after seeking asylum in Ecuador’s London Embassy to avoid extradition on various charges, including those related to his role in publishing classified documents provided by Chelsea Manning.

Manning had her own sentence commuted in 2013 by then-President Obama.

Assange’s first stop is Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. protectorate, where he is expected to be sentenced to five years while getting credit for the five years of time served in the U.K.

Wikileaks and Crypto

The history of Wikileaks and crypto has been closely intertwined.

In a 2014 interview, Assange said that bitcoin and Wikileaks helped keep each other alive.

As CoinDesk reported at the time, Assange said that Wikileaks initially refrained from accepting bitcoin to avoid drawing government scrutiny that could hinder the cryptocurrency’s growth after a personal request from bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto. Later, when facing a financial blockade, it adopted bitcoin for donations, providing vital funding for Wikileaks and simultaneously enhancing BTC’s legitimacy and utility.

In 2017, when rumors circulated that Assange was dead, he read off the latest bitcoin block hash as a proof-of-life.

During his legal battle with the U.S. and U.K governments, Assange and Wikileaks supporters turned to a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to help fundraise for his legal fight, raising over 16,500 ether – over $55.2 million at current prices – for his defense.