Crypto community rallies around Ukraine as over $20m of funding pours in
Ukraine has raised more than $20m (£15m) worth of crypto since Russian forces invaded the country last week.
On Saturday Ukraine’s government issued an appeal on Twitter for cryptocurrency donations to support the country’s armed forces following Russia’s invasion.
In a Tweet Ukraine’s government sent a message saying: “Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT.”
The crypto community has been quick to answer the call with donations for the country today surpassing $20m according to data from Elliptic.
Ukraine’s government have received $13.6m in Ether and Bitcoin across 18,037 transactions.
In addition, Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trade volume, has individually committed $10m to support refugees fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. While the exchange has ruled out a blanket freeze on Russian crypto accounts, requested by Ukraine’s vice prime minister this morning, it has agreed to assist with the enforcement of sanctions against Russian individuals.
A decentralized autonomous organisation (DAO) led by Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, Trippy Labs and PleasrDAO has raised more than $3m to support Ukranian civilian organisations. Meanwhile, on-chain data shows that FTX’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried has donated $250,000 in Tether while the chief executive of Chain.com Deepak Thapliyal has donated 100 ETH.
Days before the Russian invasion Ukraine’s parliament voted to create a market for crypto asset trading. While crypto offers an ultra-fast, secure means of supporting Ukraine, commentators have raised concerns that digital assets could enable Russia to evade sanctions.
Read more: Ukraine vice prime minister urges crypto exchanges to block Russian users