Did Bitcoin Fund the Attack on Capitol Hill?

Those who witnessed the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 live by supporters of Donald trump sometimes remained in shock. However, some information published since has revealed worrying links between movements extremists from various nations but also donations in support of – and among these, that of a French activist – to American far-right activists.

On December 8, 2020, a mysterious donor transferred 28.15 Bitcoins (BTC), or $ 522,000 at 22 different addresses. However, if we are to believe the investigation conducted by Chainalysis (and published in the 2021 Crypto Crime Report), several of these addresses belonged to far-right activists. The main beneficiary, Nick Fuentes was present at the siege of the Capitol: he received 13.5 BTC, or about $ 250,000. However, it appeared that the so-called Fuentes had participated in developing a protest action in Washington of several pro-Trump movements to counter Biden’s election and had promoted him on social networks.

Other major recipients also included Ethan Ralph, a podcast of the “white supremacy” movement, VDARE, an American anti-immigration website or Gad, an alternative social network advocating “free expression”, but curiously popular with an extremist audience. Are we to believe that the operation of January 6 had been planned? We can reasonably think so.

The mysterious French donor

What about the famous French donor? He was a computer programmer. And the person, Laurent Bachelier, had committed suicide the day after the transfer of his BTC, that is to say on December 9, 2020, while leaving this message: ” Western civilization is in decline. It doesn’t matter what happens after I disappear. I have decided to give my modest fortune to certain causes and individuals “.

However, it has since turned out that other similar funding had been made. One report published in June 2021 by the FATF, (an intergovernmental body for the fight against money launderingsilver and terrorist financing), highlighted how some extremist groups liked cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Monero, Dash or Zcash for their funding. Thus, a Belgian group, “Schild and Vrienden”, received numerous donations in Bitcoin.

In September 2021, Associated Press revealed in turn that Andrew Anglin, leader of a neo-Nazi site, The Daily Stormer, had received 112 BTC, the equivalent of $ 4.8 million in cryptocurrency.

And Douglass Mackey, who was arrested in Florida on January 27, 2021 for promoting hate online, subsequently received the support of a mysterious donor in the form of $ 60,000 in BTC, a donation paid in September 2021. And again, the same source noticed that a donation, albeit more limited, had been sent to the National Alliance – a white supremacist group – two days before the assault on Capitol Hill.

Does Bitcoin have a political color?

Should it be inferred that some Bitcoin donations may have helped organize the assault on the Capitol? The question is unfortunately probable. However, let us not think that there would be a “love story” between Bitcoin and the extreme right. Decryptlikes to point out that this same Bitcoin is used by candidates from the Democratic Party such as Andrew Yang and Eric Adams.

Supporters of Bitcoin will therefore have a good time asserting that as such, Bitcoin is apolitical!