50,000% return: Assange thanks US authorities who forced him to invest in Bitcoin

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange posted a sardonic ‘thank you’ note addressing US authorities who forced the whistleblowing website into investing in Bitcoin in 2010. The cryptocurrency has seen a 50,000 percent bump in value in the interim.

“My deepest thanks to the US government, Senator McCain and Senator Lieberman for pushing Visa, MasterCard, Payal, AmEx, Mooneybookers, et al, into erecting an illegal banking blockade against @WikiLeaks starting in 2010. It caused us to invest in Bitcoin -- with > 50000% return,” Assange tweeted.

For context, Bitcoin reached highs of up to $5,746.51 this week in yet another unprecedented surge in value, The Coin Telegraph reports.

Following the release of sensitive documents regarding US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, sanctions were imposed against WikiLeaks, which severely curtailed funding and forced the website to seek alternative methods of funding.

In his tweet, Assange called out current and former senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, respectively, for forcing him into seeking alternative sources of funding which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

At the time, Lieberman called for the Department of Justice to indict Assange under the 1917 Espionage Act and sought his extradition from the UK for leaking US Embassy cables.

"I think this is the most serious violation of the Espionage Act in our history," Lieberman said at the time, as cited by The Guardian. "It sure looks to me that Assange and WikiLeaks have violated the Espionage Act."

Assange has been exiled in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012.