Tallycoin Fundraiser for the Freedom Convoy Voluntarily Shut Down

On Monday, leaders of the Tallycoin fundraiser for the Freedom Convoy in Canada voluntarily stopped accepting donations, at least for the time being. At the time of deactivation, the HonkHonk Hodl group had raised approximately 22 BTC, valued at nearly $1 million, through the bitcoin fundraising platform Tallycoin. 

The Freedom Convoy protests, which have been ongoing for over two weeks, were started by Canadian truckers who oppose COVID-related mandates for cross-border drivers. The protestors received strong support through popular crowdfunding platforms GoFundMe and GiveSendGo, collecting more than $19 million from donors around the world. However, the funds through both of these platforms were blocked from reaching the protestors. It was in response to this defunding that the Tallycoin fundraiser was launched.   

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act in an effort to end the Freedom Convoy protests. "The blockades are harming our economy and endangering public safety," Trudeau said in a press conference, before adding "we cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue." The Emergencies Act would give the Canadian government the power to freeze bank accounts and monitor “large and suspicious transactions,” including those made with bitcoin. In the same press conference, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said that banks can immediately freeze or suspend bank accounts without a court order and without fear of civil liability. She added that this move against the protesters will broaden the scope of “Terrorist Financing” rules to allow them to target “crowdfunding platforms and the payment service providers they use.”
It remains unclear how the Tallycoin funds will be handled going forward. However, HonkHonk Hodl clarified via tweet that “the Multisig quorum has changed” to protect those who were public about holding keys to the funds.