Legacy right-wing extremist groups and a handful of personalities linked to last week’s storm on the U.S. Capitol received a Bitcoin donation worth about $ 522,000 a month before the DC siege, according to the crypto Chainalysis search company.
Chain analysis explained in a Thursday blog post Nick Fuentes, the right-wing internet personality whose livestream went from taking over the Capitol to his banning the streaming site DLive, received the largest single donation: about $ 250,000 or 13.5 BTC.
There is no evidence that Fuentes entered the Capitol during the January 6th events. However, he was present at the first rally, was spotted on the Capitol grounds and has been promoting President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” event for weeks, Chainalysis said.
The rest of the funds appear to have been split between a few other accounts linked to far-right ideologies, Chainalysis said. The neo-Nazi blog Daily Stormer received 3% of the total anti-immigration group VDARE 3.3% and the white nationalist leader Patrick Casey 5%. Yahoo News first reported the history.
Overall, the transactions represent an unprecedented crypto godsend for the domestic extremist groups, which Chainalysis claims to be pursuing.
Chainalysis declined to identify the alleged donor by name due to privacy concerns and ongoing legal proceedings. However, it described the person as a French blogger who may have since passed away. Chainalysis pointed out what appeared to be a suicide note posted online the day after donations began.
Individuals lament what they thought was the “decline” of Western civilization and the “rejection of our ancestors and our heritage”. This language follows a rhetoric that is common in white nationalist circles. He promised “to leave my modest wealth to certain causes and people after his death”.
Investigators are still working to determine how much planning went into the January 6th storm on the Capitol.
Chainalysis declined to link the donation directly to political violence in Washington, DC, but the “timing justifies the suspicion,” wrote Chainalysis.
“As popular payment platforms remove extremist groups and numbers, we may see them more as a cryptocurrency donation mechanism,” the company said.
