How Australia?s far right uses cryptocurrencies to monetise hate online

There have never been more ways to ask for money on the internet. For rightwing extremists looking to monetise hate, that can be a big opportunity - and the earning potential of these digital assets hasn't gone unnoticed in Australia.

Earlier this year, I traced funding networks associated with a sample of Australian channels that share rightwing extremist content on the chat app Telegram, and found links to at least 22 online funding tools. These included donation requests via wallet addresses for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, monero, ethereum and litecoin.

Of course an interest in cryptocurrencies is not on its own indicative of racism or extremism, but a recent analysis by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) found a cohort of white supremacists largely originating from North America has likely generated "a substantial profit" from bitcoin by getting in early, giving them access to funds "that would almost certainly be unavailable to them without cryptocurrency".

Controversial Canadian "alt-right" figure Stefan Molyneux, who denies being a white supremacist but was pushed off YouTube for his commentary about women and "scientific racism", has received at least 1,250 bitcoin from supporters according to the SPLC (one Bitcoin was worth A$68,647 at the time of writing).

As was posted in March on a Telegram channel associated with Blair Cottrell, who was convicted by a Victorian court of inciting hatred of Muslims in 2017: "crypto is actually making a lot of our guys rich."

While bitcoin may have created eye watering profits for "early-adopter" rightwing extremists, privacy coins like monero - which attempt to obscure the origin and destination of transactions - also appear to be increasingly embraced by far-right groups.

After the National Socialist Network's Thomas Sewell was charged with a number of offences this year in connection with an alleged assault and an alleged armed robbery, there was a donation drive to cover the Australian's legal fees. In December alone, support requests for both bitcoin and monero donations were shared into Telegram channels associated with US and Australian far-right livestreamers with tens of thousands of followers, as well as accounts linked to Australia's anti-lockdown movement. Sewell is pleading not guilty to the charges.