The DAO that wants to free Julian Assange just won the bid for a $53 million NFT that will be used to fund the WikiLeaks founder's legal defense

• The DAO dedicated to freeing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has won a bid to purchase an NFT for 16,593 ether.
• Proceeds from the NFT sale will go to Assange's legal defense fund.

AssangeDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization fighting for the freedom of Julian Assange, has won a bid to purchase a non-fungible token for 16,593 ether (roughly $53 million).

Proceeds from the sale of the NFT, designed by the WikiLeaks founder himself in collaboration with a prominent digital artist who goes by Pak, will go to Assange's legal defense fund.

The token, dubbed "Clock," is a timer that counts the number of days Assange has spent in prison. The NFT came from Pak's collection called Censored.

—AssangeDAO (@AssangeDAO) February 9, 2022

The stunning amount generated by over 10,000 contributors totaled 17,422 ether (around $56 million) in just a matter of days. Among those who contributed is ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin who gave 10 ether, according to his tweet.

AssangeDAO offered the maximum bid on Tuesday, supported by Assange's brother, Gabriel Shipton.

"We believe that this is the best outcome for AssangeDAO to assist Julian Assange's liberation," he said in his statement.

—WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 8, 2022

Since the DAO won the bid, its contributors will be given the DAO's governance token called JUSTICE in amounts that are proportional to their contributions. Currently, one token is trading at around $0.002795 based on CoinMarketCap data, trading 12% lower as of 3:52 p.m. ET. It can be traded on Uniswap and SushiSwap.

The Censored collection also includes an open edition, which invites buyers to mint their own censored messages and pay any amount they desire. All proceeds will go to a range of charities including human rights and freedom of information, according to Pak. Over 30,000 tokenized messages have been created so far based on OpenSea with Pak minting the first one for 100 ETH. When Assange is freed, the messages will be uncensored as well.

AssangeDAO was formed on December 10, when a London court ruled that the WikiLeaks founder can be extradited to the US where he faces 18 charges. In late January, the High Court in London said he can appeal the December extradition ruling, meaning he can bring his case to the UK Supreme Court.

Assange has been in a UK prison since 2019, after the Ecuadorian embassy of London terminated his asylum status. The US then requested to extradite him, a process that has lasted more than two years.

AssangeDAO said it was inspired by FreeRossDAO, a group that aimed to liberate Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the online narcotics emporium Silk Road. FreeRossDAO raised $12 million, which was also used to bid on an NFT, the website said

Other recent high-profile DAOs include ConstitutionDAO, which raised over $40 million in a span of a few days to buy a rare copy of the US Constitution. It disbanded after losing its bid to Citadel CEO Ken Griffin.