AssangeDAO token surges over 80% after Julian Assange leaves UK's Belmarsh Prison

AssangeDAO's token (ticker: JUSTICE) has gained over 80% since Julian Assange was released from the UK's high-security Belmarsh prison on Monday after spending 1,901 days there.

AssangeDAO was formed in February of this year, with the aim of raising funds to be used to fight for the freedom of the WikiLeaks founder. A member of AssangeDAO stated on Tuesday in an X post that over 11,000 ETH, equivalent to $37 million, has been allocated for legal defense and advocacy from the 16,593 ETH raised by AssangeDAO since its inception.

Julian Assange to face trial this week

The surge in the token's price followed Assange's flight on Monday to the remote Pacific island of Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands (NMI), a U.S. commonwealth in the western Pacific.

The Wikileaks founder is en route to a courtroom on the island, where he is expected to plead guilty on Wednesday to a single criminal charge in a plea deal that could allow him to walk free and return home to Australia, potentially bringing an end to his five-year-long legal battle.

"Julian Assange’s flight VJ199 landed in Bangkok a couple of hours ago: soon he will fly into U.S. airspace where he is due to appear before a U.S. judge," Wikileaks posted on X on Tuesday.

The AssangeDAO token (ticker: JUSTICE) has increased by over 80% in the past 24 hours. Image: Coingecko.

Assange charged with violations of U.S. Espionage Act

Assange's case involves accusations of espionage against the U.S. government following his publication on Wikileaks of a large cache of documents detailing alleged war crimes committed by U.S. armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The documents supplied to WikiLeaks came via Chelsea Manning, a whistleblower who was serving as a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq at the time.

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice brought multiple offenses against the Wikileaks founder, under the U.S. Espionage Act. If he was found guilty of these charges, the total maximum sentence he could face theoretically exceeds 170 years.

However, according to WikiLeaks, Assange has entered into a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice, admitting to just one of the 18 offenses. If sentenced for this single charge on Wednesday, it is likely to carry a 62-month jail term, but it will be considered served due to the years he spent in a UK prison awaiting the charges.