How The Alt-Right Is Profiting From The Bitcoin Boom

Following the events in Charlottesville, some internet companies, including money-transfer services like Apple Pay and PayPal, started denying their services to some of the far-right activists. Having been turned down by big tech and hoping to avoid government control, the alt-right moved to alternative platforms and services more lenient towards their views. Unsurprisingly, some of these “outcasts” got their hands on Bitcoin, the unregulated, decentralised digital currency, using it to collect donations and to carry out other business activities.

"Extremist figures who invested in Bitcoin as a bulwark against efforts to block their political activity now find themselves holding what amount to winning lottery tickets," points out The Washington Post. There's no doubt about that. Thursday morning, Bitcoin was trading around $14,000, an increase of 1300% compared to less than $1,000 at the start of January 2017, reaching more than $19,000 earlier this month.

“It’s impossible to know how many on the far right are reaping Bitcoin windfalls, but researchers who monitor extreme political activity say they have detected a surge in transactions as people on the far right move assets into the digital currency and increasingly use it for ordinary business purposes,” writes the Washington Post. Apparently, Southern Poverty Law Center, a watchdog organization that monitors hate groups and extremists in the U.S., is tracking as many as 200 bitcoin wallets allegedly held by extremists.

The Washington Post shows us with scathing irony how those who raved about being denied free speech now rejoice over their stroke of luck when they invested in the booming cryptocurrency. And if you want to dig deeper, Mic also reported on the use of Bitcoin among the far-right earlier this month.