I suppose it is, because they paid out of their own pocket to keep it up. Which is quite baffling to me because they made no attempt whatsoever outside of bitcoin donations to monetise the site, even when they had a period of a few months where people were flocking to Voat from Reddit.
There was a short-lived partner program they ran for while back. The only other means of monetization I can think of is through ads. A new one appeared yesterday.
Edit: spelling.
But we only have their word on how much it all costs, and the funds that they have coming in. They could easily lie, and it definitely wouldn't be the first time a human did so. IMHO, they are profitable and have been for awhile. It's easier to fleece people from their kindness when they think you're doing them a favor.
It does kind of undermine the idea of having a warrant canary if they don't update it on a timeframe though. Now people are going to ask Puttitout if they have received a warrant and he's either going to say they haven't, or he isn't going to be able to say anything at all, leading to speculation.
The warrant canary is one of those things that they said they would automate fucking ages ago and still haven't done it.