Julian Assange Net Worth: WikiLeaks Received $400,000 In Bitcoin Donations Since Founder's Arrest

Julian Assange’s net worth is around $400,000, and Bitcoin (BTC) apparently has a lot to do with it.

Assange has amassed a large number of supporters over the years, including those who are against media censorship and those who support investigative journalism. He is the founder and former editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, which published sensitive and classified government information starting in 2007, NPR reported.

Some of the information the website published included extrajudicial killings, toxic waste dumping and messages between the U.S. government and its diplomatic missions, otherwise known as “Cablegate,” according to Celebrity Net Worth.

The internet activist was then pursued by authorities for computer-related crimes, but he was able to seek protection in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he stayed from 2012 to 2019. Last year, he was arrested and now stays in a top-security Belmarsh prison, where he awaits the verdict on his extradition case to the U.S.

His partner, Stella Morris, with whom he shares two children named Max and Gabriel, recently spoke about the "atrocious" conditions Assange is currently enduring in prison in an interview with Sky News Australia. Morris said she hopes her partner would be allowed to go home on Christmas for the kids, adding that there is a COVID-19 outbreak in the prison Assange is being kept in.

Over the years, the 49-year-old has benefited from Bitcoin donations from supporters. Assange, a computer programmer, was one of the first believers of Bitcoin.

Since 2010, WikiLeaks has received around 4,043 BTC, which are now worth $37 million. After its founder’s arrest last year, around $400,000 in BTC donations have been sent to WikiLeaks’ address, according to Bitcoin.com.

Germany-based Wau Holland Foundation, one of the partners of WikiLeaks, also claimed that it gathered around $1.3 million in donations in 2010, Wall Street Journal reported. At the time, Assange was earning around $86,000 per year. WikiLeaks was transitioning from a volunteer basis work to salaried positions, and being its founder, Assange got to enjoy a big part of the donations.

The Queensland, Australia native has been interested in computers since he was young. But that brilliance has also led him to face charges of hacking and computer-related offenses. Assange was once labeled as “Australia's most famous, ethical, computer hacker."

If convicted, Assange faces 175 years in prison due to 17 espionage charges filed by U.S. prosecutors. The charges are connected to the unauthorized publishing of information by WikiLeaks almost a decade ago.