Ukraine: crypto donations on the rise

Since the government of Ukraine asked the international community on 26 February to accept donations in cryptocurrency to help the country during the Russian invasion, donations have risen to more than $90 million, according to the latest estimates of the Ministry of Technological Innovation.

200,000 crypto donations for Ukraine

More than 200,000 crypto donations have been received, some of them substantial, others derived from the sale of NFTs.

One of these donations is said to be $1.86 million, which was originally intended to fund Julian Assange.

The Minister of Technological Innovation is certain that in the coming days the barrier of $100 million in cryptocurrency donated to the Ukrainian resistance will be crossed

Crypto Ucraina
The crypto world continues to donate for Ukraine

The mobilization of the crypto world

Alex Bornyakov, Ukrainian deputy minister for digital transformation, who has become the government’s spokesman on the subject of cryptocurrencies, said on Friday that over $50 million would be received by the primary fund managed by cryptocurrency exchange Kuna.

The funds, managed by Kuna, according to its founder Michael Chobanian, would be used to buy non-lethal supplies such as gasoline, food and bulletproof vests for soldiers. 

Some suppliers would also accept payment directly in cryptocurrencies.

The Ukrainian government is so far accepting donations in Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, Polkadot and Dogecoin. 

The founder of Kuna, in recent days also posted a screenshot on Twitter showing the amount of funds received in the respective cryptocurrencies.

In addition to the government, a number of non-profit and philanthropic organizations, such as Back Alive, Ukraine DAO, Endaoment and the Kyiv Independent, an English-language Ukrainian newspaper, are also directly accepting cryptocurrency donations.

In addition to direct donations to the government, many industry players, such as Kraken, have also put in place plans to help their Ukrainian users. 

They started by offering $1,000 to users who had opened an account by 9 March 2022.

The Russian government, on behalf of its activist vice-president and minister for technological innovation, Mikhailo Fedorov, had in recent days also asked the world’s major exchanges to block all Russian users, to prevent them from somehow circumventing the sanctions imposed by the international community.


Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2022/03/14/ukraine-crypto-donations-grow/