WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced the birth of his daughter on X, sharing a photo of himself holding the baby with a quote from the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. His wife, Stella Assange, also celebrated the arrival on the social media platform.
Terminator Quote Marks the Occasion
In his post, Assange used the line: “The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.” In the film, the line conveys the idea that people can still avert disaster.
Stella Assange, a human rights lawyer, followed up later, calling the girl “so cute…and loud!” and thanking everyone for their messages.
Background and Crypto Support
The couple first announced the pregnancy in September and thanked supporters who fought for Assange’s release. The pregnancy news came days after Assange returned to X following an eight-year silence. At the time, he said the new life was “thanks to everyone who fought for my freedom.”
Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006. The site became known for publishing classified government documents from anonymous sources, which later led to US charges against him under the Espionage Act.
Many of his backers used crypto to support him. Visa, Mastercard and PayPal cut WikiLeaks off in December 2010, and the site began accepting Bitcoin in June 2011. Julian Assange later claimed those coins returned roughly 50,000%. In 2024, an anonymous donor sent 8 BTC to cover his roughly $500,000 charter-flight debt.
Supporters also pooled 16,593 ETH through AssangeDAO in 2022, worth about $53 million at the time. The DAO splintered weeks later, but its JUSTICE token, which Assange has no role in, still spikes whenever he makes headlines.
The birth news, however, barely moved the token. JUSTICE still trades at roughly double its January level, yet most of its September gains have faded. Daily trading volume has also dropped to a few hundred dollars.
Julian Assange spent more than five years in Belmarsh prison before a 2024 plea deal freed him. His case remains one of the earliest examples of Bitcoin donations replacing blocked payment channels.
