Newsletter Sep 10, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #137 El Salvador’s $1.4 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan is moving forward after officials reduced the government’s role in Bitcoin infrastructure. Majority ownership and control of the state-backed Chivo wallet have shifted to a private operator, while the IMF says recent additions to the country’s Bitcoin holdings came from private donations rather than public funds.
Announcement Sep 8, 2026 New WSJ essay from HRF’s Alex Gladstein In a new essay for The Wall Street Journal, HRF Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladstein examines what happens when people cannot rely on their governments or financial systems to protect their savings, access their money, or transact freely.
Newsletter Sep 3, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #136 In Russia, officials sentenced a senior programmer to a four-year suspended sentence for donating $21 to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF). Leonid Stepanov was convicted using his own bank statements, showing how the Kremlin weaponizes financial surveillance and demonstrating precisely why alternative payment rails like Bitcoin matter in the struggle for democracy.
Newsletter Aug 13, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #135 In Iraq, the hybrid authoritarian regime has decided to remove three zeros from the dinar and issue new banknotes, a move officials argue would force hoarded cash back into banks.
Press Release Aug 25, 2026 HRF Grants 500M+ Satoshis to 16 Freedom Tech Projects Worldwide The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is pleased to announce grants totaling more than 500 million satoshis from its Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF).
Newsletter Aug 20, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #134 In Russia, Binance gave officials the identity and transaction history of a user who donated more than $700 in cryptocurrency to Ukrainian causes. The Kremlin later used this information to charge him with financing terrorism.
Newsletter Aug 13, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #133 In Russia, Putin’s dictatorship officially designated the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) as an “undesirable” organization.
Newsletter Aug 6, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #132 In Syria, the transitional government replaced the Assad-era pound, which lost more than 99% of its value since 2011. The new pound removes two zeros from the old currency, but the process has created new barriers for Syrians holding old banknotes outside the formal economy, especially those who are unbanked, far from Damascus, or reliant on cash.
Newsletter Jul 30, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #131 In India, Narendra Modi’s hybrid authoritarian regime attempted to restrict access to code for Bitchat, an open-source app that allows users to send messages over Bluetooth without an internet connection, after suspending internet access during student protests in Delhi.
External Source Freedom Tech track at OFF 2026 This explores how new technologies are weaponized by authoritarian regimes and how tools like Bitcoin, offline messaging like Bitchat, decentralized communication protocols like Nostr, and open-source AI are helping human rights defenders on the front lines transact, communicate, and organize where they otherwise could not.
Newsletter Jul 23, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #130 In Russia, lawmakers approved new amendments expanding financial surveillance under the country’s “foreign agents” law.
Newsletter Jul 16, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #129 In Burma, officials froze the bank accounts of more than 100 companies, including firms involved in car imports, fuel, agriculture, gemstones, and import-export businesses.
Newsletter Jul 9, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #128 Last week, Kenyan police detained hundreds as families of those killed in the 2024 Finance Bill protests marched to Parliament.
Newsletter Jul 2, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #127 In Gaza, Palestinians report that they are unable to access their own money after the Bank of Palestine froze accounts without warning.
Newsletter Jun 25, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #126 Cuba’s communist regime approved more than 175 economic reforms touting liberalization, but real financial freedom remains out of reach for everyday people.
Newsletter Jun 18, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #125 In Burma, the military junta proposed a new law that would allow officials to monitor financial activity, freeze accounts, and target alternative payment networks used by dissidents and civil society.
Newsletter Jun 11, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #124 In Kenya, the government is proposing a new marketplace to sell datasets collected through state-run platforms like eCitizen, the country’s main portal for digital government services.
Publication Jun 4, 2026 How Freedom Tech Is Pushing Back Against Digital Authoritarianism Around the world, governments and corporations are expanding tools of digital control, from facial recognition and biometric surveillance to mandatory digital IDs and debanking.
Newsletter May 28, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #123 In Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Meta has restricted the accounts of human rights activists and organizations at the request of local officials.
Newsletter May 21, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #122 In North Korea, officials summoned more than 30 software developers to Pyongyang for what was presented as a technical training session, only to publicly reprimand them for building unauthorized software.
