Everstake, a blockchain company that partnered with the Ukrainian government to launch a donation website amid the country’s war with Russia, has pushed back against online rumors and conspiracy theories that the platform was used for money laundering. money for political reasons.
Ukrainian government officials partnered with Everstake, Kuna and the now infamous FTX cryptocurrency exchange to launch Aid for Ukraine in March following the Russian military invasion. According to the platform, cryptocurrency users and Ukrainian supporters sent approximately $60 million in cryptocurrency and current money to support the Ukrainian military and other humanitarian causes. However, with FTX’s liquidity problems and bankruptcy, the apparent fall from grace of Sam Bankman-Fried, and potential legal action against the company and its executives, social media users have taken a lot of liberties with the truth. speculating on the final destination of crypto donations.
Conspiracy theories promulgated online falsely claim that due to its association with FTX and Bankman-Fried’s previous political donations, Aid for Ukraine funds ended up being funneled to the US Democratic Party. An Everstake spokesman dismissed those rumors as Russian propaganda, spread by North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s Twitter account and by “biased media outlets, including Fox News and Russia Today.”
According to Everstake, the false claims “do not correspond to reality”, given that most of the funds have already gone towards helmets, bulletproof vests and night vision technology for the Ukrainian military, as reported in August by the country’s deputy prime minister. , Mykhailo Fedorov. The spokesperson added that the situation with FTX “does not affect the operation of Aid For Ukraine,” as the platform only used the exchange “a few times” to convert donations into current money in March and had no funds stored on it at the time of the exchange. its collapse.
“Every time Russia is defeated on the battlefield, it starts looking for another way to cover up its military failures in the media by spreading fake news based on fabricated assumptions,” said Everstake CEO Sergey Vasylchuk. “This time, they decided to use the collapse of FTX to spin another money laundering tale. It is obvious that Western support for Ukraine hurts Russia, since it causes its losses on the battlefield. We know for a fact that every donation was spent for the benefit of Ukraine.”
A fundraising crypto foundation @_AidForUkraine used @FTX_Official to convert crypto donations into fiat in March. Ukraine’s gov never invested any funds into FTX. The whole narrative that Ukraine allegedly invested in FTX, who donated money to Democrats is nonsense, frankly ♂️
— Alex Bornyakov (@abornyakov) November 14, 2022
One of the kernels of truth within the rumor surrounds Bankman-Fried admitting to being a “significant donor” to political candidates in the 2022 US midterm elections, but with the majority of her contributions going to Democrats. On November 29, the Texas Tribune reported that Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat who lost his race to incumbent Greg Abbott, returned a $1 donation from SBF before Election Day.
“I wish I had achieved that”, Bankman-Fried jokingly said in an interview with Tiffany Fong on November 16 addressing the rumors. “Did I help Ukraine launder funds for the Democratic Party? […] I wish I was part of such an interesting international conspiracy.”
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Vasylchuk said that Ukrainian government officials had been forced to respond to “serious people” asking about the rumors online. The Everstake CEO speculated that the recent Twitter upheaval amid Elon Musk’s inauguration as CEO had further opened the doors for conspiracy theories to run rampant on the platform, such as the one related to FTX and Ukraine crypto donations. .
“Society is blind to stop the spread of lies and propaganda,” Vasylchuk said. “We see how propaganda can influence, like in Russia: [engañaron] to millions of people. At the same time, I see that they pass to [engañar] to Americans, and social media can do the same. So I’m very scared. I’m afraid of the information and I’m afraid of how easy it is to manipulate or force people to believe some kind of this information.”
added:
“This information was similar to information such as ‘Ukraine developed battle mosquitoes that will bite the Russians’ […] I was thinking that American society is much more mature than in [Europa]and people are able to feel the reality, the obvious shit, but unfortunately not.”
Vasylchuk reported that crypto donations through Aid for Ukraine had decreased in recent months. Many cryptocurrency users are expected to send cash and tokens to various organizations as part of Giving Tuesday, or Bitcoin Tuesday, on November 29.
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