The political party of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, has received 3.7 BTC, which is worth around $120,000, following his arrest on Sunday. As seen on TV, protestors have gathered on the streets of Moskow to demand his release.
Bitcoin Funding for His Release
On January the 17th, Russian police arrested Navalny at the Moskow airport as he returned from Berlin. Officials used a 2014 conviction for the arrest.
Navalny asked the people of Russia to protest, and they listened. Thousands of protestors have gathered in the nation’s capital.
Navalny’s political party is the Foundation for Combating Corruption, which is a non-profit organization, that for legal reasons, doesn’t list the party’s BTC address. The group’s main website, though, does accept donations via wire transfer, PayPal, and, of course, Bitcoin.
The party’s address has been on the receiving end of many donations since Navalny was arrested, totaling 3.7 BTC or $120,000. Since the party has started accepting Bitcoin donations, it has received 657.1 BTC, which, at the current price, is worth around $21.3 million.
Protos Media has reported that there is also a second BTC address, one that, together with the aforementioned one, has received 7.5 BTC since August.
Bitcoin has been used to help public protests and various covert operations in many parts of the world, including the Hong Kong protests in 2020 and the U.S. Capitol riots this year.
The Russian president called the protests illegal and dangerous – over 3,000 people were arrested, as a result, in Moskow.