Millions Of Dollars Of Cryptocurrency Donations Have Been Flowing To Ukraine

The world's crypto community is flocking to help Ukraine. (photo: twitter @Ukraine_DAO)

JAKARTA – Amid military threats across the country, Ukraine has asked for help from various international organizations. However, given that time is of the essence, the official Ukrainian Twitter account turned to Crypto Twitter for help.

The Ukrainian government has reached out to the crypto community on Twitter to raise funds to support its civilians and troops. Ukraine has now started accepting donations in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Tether (USDT).

Even Mykhailo Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, also shared three wallet addresses, urging the crypto community to donate and help Ukraine fight against Russian forces. While the BTC and ETH addresses remain the same, the USDT wallet addresses are TRC-20 based and different from the addresses shared by the official Ukrainian Twitter account.

Prominent crypto entrepreneur Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, initially suspected that the account asking for crypto donations was hacked. However, the United States diplomat, Tomiah Tillemann, later confirmed their legitimacy with the Ukrainian Ambassador Olexander Scherba.

Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT.BTC - 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1PETH and USDT (ERC-20) - 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14

— Ukraine / аїна (@Ukraine) February 26, 2022

Refugee Ukrainian civilians have also reported loss of access to their fiat savings and credit cards. The United Nations reported that more than 150,000 people had fled Ukraine as of Saturday, February 26.

While there was confusion about the intended use of crypto donations, Buterin shared other initiatives. They created a decentralized autonomous organization focused solely on Ukrainian citizens.

UkraineDAO, led by Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, was launched by releasing the sole nonfungible token (NFT) of the Ukrainian flag to raise funds for Ukrainian civic organizations working to help those suffering from the war.

On Thursday, February 24, Cointelegraph reported that the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has received numerous requests from foreigners asking it to accept crypto donations.

Although unconfirmed, it is now believed that donations to addresses shared by Ukraine will be used directly by the government. Meanwhile, the DAO process will be directed towards the welfare of the citizens through NGOs.

Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT.BTC - 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1PETH and USDT (ERC-20) - 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14

— Ukraine / аїна (@Ukraine) February 26, 2022

Since Thursday, leading crypto entrepreneurs have taken proactive efforts to help Ukraine. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was one of the first, offering monetary support to FTX traders from Ukraine.

Based on data compiled by Cointelegraph, the number of traceable crypto donations sent to the Ukrainian government, military, and charities has exceeded 37 million US dollars as of Tuesday, March 1.

This amount includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT) and other altcoins. This number is also based on tracked projects and does not account for items such as donation efforts between individuals.

The largest recipient of crypto donations appears to be the "Ukrainian reserve fund," which is backed by the country's native cryptocurrency exchange, Kuna. According to its official Telegram channel, the exchange has raised around $13 million in crypto for Ukraine, mainly via BTC, ETH, and USDT.

Furthermore, Come Back Alive, a non-governmental organization that says it helps the resistance efforts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, has received more than 7.2 million US dollars in BTC donations in its wallet address. This includes previous, albeit small, donations it has received during the War in the Donbas, which began in 2014. Cointelegraph spoke to Ukrainian crypto enthusiasts about the charity, which vouches for its legitimacy.

Then there's UkraineDAO, led by Pussy Riot (Russian feminist protest music group) Nadya Tolokonnikova and seeking to sell a nonfungible token, or NFT, flag to fund Ukrainian civic organizations. Currently, the highest bid for NFT is $2.89 million USD.

Furthermore, activists in the blockchain community have created the Unchain Fund to help Ukraine.

This initiative supports many altcoins, including NEAR, Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD) and more. Since its launch, the fund has raised more than $1.5 million in cryptocurrencies. The funds were mostly raised through NEAR token donations.

“We raised money for medicine, evacuation and repair needs, food and clothing. We collect funds only in cryptocurrencies and use multi-sig wallets to be completely transparent. The Unchain Fund is also supported by Vitalik Buterin, Solana, Near, the Celo foundation, Harmoni, Polygon, Gnosis, Gitcoin, and more," Anna Tutova, Unchain Fund member and leading socialite in the crypto community, told Cointelegraph.

Other notable efforts include Brainins, the world's oldest mining pool, with a donation of 10 BTC plus a portion of its hash rate to help Ukraine.

The RELI3F Web3 humanitarian aid initiative is also sending aid in the form of cryptocurrencies. So far, 185 ETH has been channeled to three crypto funds backing Ukraine.

But cryptocurrency enthusiasts are also asking the Ukrainian government to expand acceptance of cryptocurrency donations to other altcoins, not just BTC, ETH, and USDT.