WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
posted a sardonic ‘thank you’ note addressing US authorities who
forced the whistleblowing website into investing in Bitcoin in 2010.
The cryptocurrency has seen a 50,000 percent bump in value in the
interim.
“My deepest thanks to the US
government, Senator McCain and Senator Lieberman for pushing Visa,
MasterCard, Payal, AmEx, Mooneybookers, et al, into erecting an
illegal banking blockade against @WikiLeaks starting in 2010. It
caused us to invest in Bitcoin -- with > 50000% return,”
Assange tweeted.
For context, Bitcoin reached highs
of up to $5,746.51 this week in yet another unprecedented surge in
value, The Coin Telegraph reports.
Following the release of sensitive
documents regarding US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq,
sanctions were imposed against WikiLeaks, which severely curtailed
funding and forced the website to seek alternative methods of
funding.
In his tweet, Assange called out
current and former senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman,
respectively, for forcing him into seeking alternative sources of
funding which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
At the time, Lieberman called for
the Department of Justice to indict Assange under the 1917 Espionage
Act and sought his extradition from the UK for leaking US Embassy
cables.
"I think this is the most
serious violation of the Espionage Act in our history,"
Lieberman said at the time, as cited by The Guardian. "It
sure looks to me that Assange and WikiLeaks have violated the
Espionage Act."
Assange has been exiled in the
Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012.
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