Crypto donations have continued to pour in as the Russia-Ukraine conflict enters its second week. In the first week, the government raised over $10 million in Bitcoin and Ether donations via two wallet addresses it shared on Twitter. NGOs raising money to support the military also received more than $4 million worth of cryptocurrencies within this period.
According to analytics firm Elliptic, the amount of crypto donations that Ukraine has received is now over $50 million in crypto donations. Specifically, the country’s government and Come Back Alive – an NGO supporting the military, have both raised $54.7 million, Elliptic says. A single donation of $5.8 million was received from Gavin Wood – founder of cryptocurrency Polkadot.
Since the attacks on Ukraine started, the country has received 102,000 crypto assets donations, with 72,000 of these donations coming in the last 48 hours. Bitcoin received is valued at $17.2 million, Ether priced at $18.2 million consists of these donations. Apart from these two main cryptocurrencies, the donations consisted of a menagerie of US dollar-pegged stable coins which included an anonymous donation of $1 million worth of tether.
Crypto donations became the main way to support the country which blocked all major payment channels, most especially money transfer. Not only are cryptocurrencies fast, they are also efficient and anonymous. This makes it the number one option for donors.
The move to accept donations in crypto came shortly after the country gave cryptocurrencies a legal status. It is also a good thing for the country because, in their current reality, cryptocurrency will allow the bypassing of financial institutions that may block payments to Ukraine.
The country which tweeted two addresses – one for Bitcoin and the other for Ether, is now receiving donations in various cryptocurrencies alongside NGOs. According to Elliptic, the Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Polkadot, Dogecoin and Solana addresses listed in the tweets have received over 96,000 cryptocurrency donations, and a total value of $46.7 million has gone directly to the government.
Elliptic’s Chief Scientist Tom Robinson had earlier said this week that “Cryptocurrency is particularly suited to international fundraising because it doesn’t respect national boundaries and it’s censorship-resistant — there is no central authority that can block transactions, for example in response to sanctions”.
The country has also started seeing donations of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). The government’s Ethereum account received a CryptoPunk NFT worth $200 million. Elliptic, earlier this week mentioned that a donation of $1.86 million came from the sale of an NFT originally intended to raise funds for Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks. The UkraineDAO also auctioned off an NFT of the country’s flag for $6.5 million in ether, making it one of the most expensive NFTs listed for sale. The proceeds from the sale are to be donated to the Come Back Alive NGO.
The country also received $350 million military aid from the White House and the US Congress is already asking for $10 billion in emergency aid to support humanitarian supplies, security forces and the Ukrainian economy. The USAID has also pledged another $54 million in humanitarian aid to Kyiv.
The country has also received support in other forms. Airbnb, for instance, is providing refugee shelters for Ukrainians, people in other countries have also been paying for stays with no intention of staying at these properties just to support hosts. The company also suspended operations in Russia this week. Apple App Store and Google Play Store have removed state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik from their stores. Mastercard and Visa have also removed Russia from their networks.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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