According to data collected by Cointelegraph, the amount of tracked crypto donations sent to Ukraine’s government, military, and charities exceeded $37 million at the close of this edition. These include Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT), and other altcoins. The numbers are also based on tracked projects and don’t take into account things like donation efforts between individuals.
The largest recipient of crypto donations appears to be the “Ukrainian Reserve Fund”, backed by the country’s native crypto exchange, Kuna. According to its official Telegram channel, the exchange has raised approximately $13 million worth of crypto for Ukraine, mostly through BTC, ETH, and USDT.
Next, Come Back Alive, a non-governmental organization that says it is aiding the resistance efforts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, received more than $7.2 million in BTC donations to its wallet address. This includes earlier, albeit minor, donations it had received during the War in Donbas, which began in 2014. Cointelegraph spoke to Ukrainian crypto enthusiasts about the charity, who vouched for its legitimacy.
then there’s ukraineDAO, which is run by Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot (Russian feminist protest music group) and seeks to sell a single non-fungible token, or NFT, of a flag to fund Ukrainian civic organizations. Currently, the highest bid for the NFT is $2.89 million.
Also, activists in the blockchain community have created the Unchain Fund to help Ukraine. The initiative supports a large number of altcoins, including NEAR, Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD), and more. Since its launch, the fund has raised more than $1.5 million in cryptocurrency, primarily through donations of NEAR tokens. Anna Tutova, a member of the Unchain Fund and a prominent socialite in the crypto community, told Cointelegraph:
“We raise money for medicine, evacuation and repair needs, food and clothing. We raise funds only in cryptocurrencies and use multisig wallets to be completely transparent. The Unchain fund is also supported by Vitalik Buterin, Solana, Near, the Celo foundation, Harmony, Polygon, Gnosis, Gitcoin and many more.”
Other notable efforts include Braiins, the oldest mining pool in the world, with their donation of 10 BTC plus a portion of their hash rate to help Ukraine. Web3’s humanitarian aid initiative, RELI3F, also ShippingSo far, 185 ETH to three crypto funds supporting Ukraine.
But crypto enthusiasts are also calling on the Ukrainian government to expand its acceptance of crypto donations to other altcoins., not just BTC, ETH, and USDT. On Monday, Sunny Lu, co-founder and CEO of Vechain, tweeted:
Setup a VET wallet and leave VET address, I’ll donate $8m. Nothing else matters comparing people’s life.
— Sunny LU, VeChain Ⓥ (@sunshinelu24) February 28, 2022
Set up a VET wallet and leave the VET address, I will donate $8 million. Nothing else matters compared to people’s lives.
Around the same time, Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum and creator of Polkadot (DOT) and Kusama, wrote:
If you post a DOT address I’ll personally contribute $5m.
— Gavin Wood (@gavofyork) February 27, 2022
If you post a DOT address, I’ll personally contribute $5 million.
Even as crypto fundraising efforts for Ukraine gained a great deal of traction, users took to social media to warn one another to be vigilant, always check the authenticity of donation links, and beware of scams. . In one example, an alleged scammer has been commenting on all posts that pretended to publish the official crypto address to help the Ukrainian government.
Clarification: The information and/or opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views or editorial line of Cointelegraph. The information set forth herein should not be taken as financial advice or investment recommendation. All investment and commercial movement involve risks and it is the responsibility of each person to do their due research before making an investment decision.
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