AssangeDAO fund transfer raises questions: potential rug pull behind high-profile fundraising

Written by: Lisa, SlowMist Technology

On March 10, 2024, the address marked as Censored: Clock Multisig (0x5DAEA26517788b1c0DDB0200c6Fa6d8248076143) transferred 100 ETH to a new address, which once again sparked community attention and dissatisfaction. This address is directly related to the decentralized autonomous organization AssangeDAO, and some members of the community expressed skepticism about its potential "Soft Rug Pull" behavior. (Ps. This article is jointly produced by SlowMist and RescuETH)

What is AssangeDAO

Since its inception, AssangeDAO has attracted attention due to its association with the highly controversial individual ------ Julian Assange. Julian Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006, and in 2010, he was imprisoned in a London jail for exposing various controversial incidents involving the U.S. government. On December 10, 2021, the UK High Court made a decision to allow the extradition of Julian Assange, which means he could face up to 175 years in prison in the U.S. On the day this ruling was made, AssangeDAO, named after Assange, was established in a Telegram group. Shortly after the group's formation, Assange's brother Gabriel Shipton joined, actively protesting and lobbying for Assange's release.

On February 3, 2022, AssangeDAO emulated ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE), which had received significant media attention, and launched a fundraising campaign on the crowdfunding platform JuiceBox. According to its official website, AssangeDAO is a "crypto-punk" organization, with members including Assange's family, and its sole purpose is to free Assange from imprisonment. AssangeDAO claims to raise funds to bid on the "Censored" series NFT created in collaboration between Assange and digital artist Pak, which is named "Clock 1/1" and is a silent clock that records the days Assange has spent in prison. It is understood that this NFT was auctioned by Pak on a dedicated website, and the proceeds from the NFT sales will be used for Assange's legal defense and advocacy efforts to raise awareness of his case regarding freedom of speech.

Similar to PEOPLE, for every 1 ETH donated, donors could receive 1 million governance tokens JUSTICE. Due to the previous surge in the governance tokens of PEOPLE, which increased several times, this fundraising attracted a large number of investors, who received JUSTICE tokens in return, which could be used to vote on future DAO proposals. What made this fundraising even more notable was that in February, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin donated 10 ETH to the project.

On February 7, 2022, the first round of fundraising for AssangeDAO concluded, raising over 10,500 ETH. They quickly launched a second round of fundraising, and as of now, the total amount raised has reached 17,422 ETH, surpassing ConstitutionDAO's 11,613 ETH, making it the most funded DAO in JuiceBox's history.

On-chain Tracking with MistTrack

According to data provided by RescuETH, AssangeDAO's multisig address (0x5DAEA26517788b1c0DDB0200c6Fa6d8248076143) received approximately 16,600 ETH in March 2022, and currently, this multisig address has 5,018.59 ETH remaining, having transferred nearly 12,000 ETH over two years.

Using the anti-money laundering tracking platform MistTrack for analysis, on April 8, 2022, this multisig address (0x5DA…143) transferred 580.745 ETH to a contract address (0xeD2…131), which was then dispersed to multiple addresses. Among them, 151 ETH remains in two addresses and has not been transferred out.

On May 9, 2022, this multisig address (0x5DA…143) transferred 34.99 ETH to a Kraken address (0x158…D11).

On May 9, 2022, this multisig address (0x5DA…143) transferred 829.64 ETH to a contract address (0x8a1…262), and then through transfers from four addresses, ultimately sent 500 ETH to (0x323339bc28028da8cd11b584747ee8ec873616b4).

On May 11, 2022, this multisig address (0x5DA…143) transferred 124 ETH to a Coinbase address (0x9Ff…FE2).

It is worth noting that in the above transactions, this multisig address (0x5DA…143) would send 0.01 ETH to the target address for testing before transferring large amounts of assets.

On June 3, 2022, this multisig address (0x5DA…143) transferred 50 ETH to address (0x323339bc28028da8cd11b584747ee8ec873616b4).

From June 8, 2022, to February 16, 2024, this multisig address (0x5DA…143) transferred 150 ETH to different addresses approximately every half month, totaling 65 transfers, amounting to 9,750 ETH. Most of these were transferred to address (0x323339bc28028da8cd11b584747ee8ec873616b4); starting from January 23, 2024, the last two transfers of 150 ETH were ultimately sent to address (0x2f988a4f26280a108a5761a889e63bd7f91d517e).

On March 6 and March 10, 2024, this multisig address (0x5DA…143) transferred 200 ETH in two transactions to address (0x2f988a4f26280a108a5761a889e63bd7f91d517e).

Through the above analysis, it can be seen that the final funds are concentrated in two addresses:

0x323339bc28028da8cd11b584747ee8ec873616b4

0x2f988a4f26280a108a5761a889e63bd7f91d517e

Continuing to analyze address (0x323…6b4):

• The first transaction was in October 2020;
• Between March 2022 and November 2023, a total of 17,517 ETH was transferred out to the Kraken platform;
• In December 2023, 337.5992 ETH was transferred out to another aggregation address (0x2f988a4f26280a108a5761a889e63bd7f91d517e).

The first transaction for address (0x2f9…17e) was in July 2023, and it transferred out 1,250 ETH to two Kraken addresses between December 2023 and March 2024.

Currently, the status of fund transfers and balances is as follows:

Conclusion

Regarding the AssangeDAO incident, although its initial goal was noble, the recent large fund transfers have raised many questions, especially concerning the addresses where the funds ultimately aggregated. If interested, one can use the anti-money laundering tracking platform MistTrack (https://dashboard.misttrack.io/) to monitor the relevant funds independently.

The true intentions behind AssangeDAO remain unknown, and we await the organization's official explanation or further disclosures. Meanwhile, investors should be aware of risks and conduct thorough research and evaluation before investing in any projects, particularly those involving decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), as these projects often face challenges in transparency and execution. Any promises of excessively high returns, unclear fund flows, or frequent transfers should raise our vigilance, as these may be warning signs of certain risky behaviors. One should not blindly pursue high returns while ignoring potential risks.