The war between Russia and Ukraine has continued for a year now. Started as a so-called military operation by the former over the latter has turned out to be a full-fledged war in no time. Such incidents hardly produce fruitful results, and common people are most affected. Aid possible from different sources through distinct mediums—including crypto donations—was crucial during the war.
Efficacies of war include loss of human lives, hampered daily life activities, lack of food like basic amenities, and much more. People depend on donations and aid primarily from international communities and countries. The war between two European countries has been no exception. Given the traditional ways took a hard hit, cryptocurrencies emerged as a reliable way to carry out philanthropic activities.
Popular blockchain data aggregator, Chainalysis recently published a report highlighting the overall amount transacted in digital assets during the Russia-Ukraine war.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, and the donations started from the early stage of the conflict. Chanialysis reported that by March 2022, the Ukrainian government provided crypto addresses and received over 56 million USD worth of crypto donations.
As TheCoinRepublic reported earlier, the Ukrainian government initiated a program for crypto donations with collaborations with several crypto firms. This included crypto exchange Kuna, now bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and staking provider firm Everstake.
Recent findings of Chainalysis state the number of donations to Ukraine has reached up to 70 million USD by February this year. Though several crypto assets were used for providing aid, major cryptocurrencies Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Tether (USDT) were used the most.
According to the report, overall, Ethereum (ETH) transactions accounted for over 28.98 million USD, Bitcoin (BTC)transactions were more than 22.8 USD and about 11.59 USD worth of Tether (USDT) stablecoin was sent as donations. Other donations were made in popular stablecoins, USD Coin (USDC) and Dai (DAI), worth 1.25 million USD and 1.07 million USD, respectively. The rest, over 191K USD, were sent through other cryptocurrencies.
In addition to cryptocurrencies, a notable amount of aid is gathered through non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The most prominent one was auctioning a Ukrainian flag NFT from UkraineDAO, which generated about 6.5 million USD.
Apart from acting as a medium for providing aid to the war-affected country, crypto assets were also used for malicious activities and evading sanctions. In the wake of the war, Russia was sanctioned by many countries worldwide, including the United States and European Union countries. Many international Russian assets were seized, and the country was barred from several trading activities to ensure a blockade of its financial support. Several reports claim the country could sustain itself despite the sanctions using cryptocurrencies.
The Chainalysis report also claims more than 5.5 million USD worth of donations were received by the organizations indulging in spreading pro-Russia propaganda. The number of these organizations could be around a hundred.
Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He is a specialist in management and trading for over 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralisation, understanding the true potential of the blockchain.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/02/27/cryptocurrency-donations-worth-70mn-usd-were-crucial-for-ukraine/