Crypto donations hit $13 million this morning, says Kuna.
The Ukrainian government and non-governmental organizations have received more than $20.9 million in cryptocurrency donations, according to Elliptic, a blockchain data analytics company. In addition, it is already using digital currencies for essential purchases such as oil, food and weapons. There are different initiatives in the world involving cryptos to help the country invaded by Russia.
The advantage of cryptocurrencies is that they allow fast transfers to wallets and that they can avoid the international payment block under which Russians live today. Regarding time, traditional donations can take days or even weeks to reach their final destination and the country at war does not have that time to wait.
Only the Ukrainian crypto exchange Kuna, which opened wallets for the Ukrainian government to receive cryptocurrencies, claimed around 10:20 am today (GMT) that donations reached US$ 12.977 million (about R$ 60 million).
According to Elliptic, there have been over 23,000 donations of cryptocurrencies since the invasion of Russia. One of the NGOs received a donation of $3 million in bitcoin. One of the donations made to a Ukrainian government account was $1.86 million and appears to come from the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that would help journalist and activist Julian Assange, creator of WikiLeaks. Assange is in the custody of London Police.
According to news website Coindesk, who spoke with the founder of Kuna, the Ukrainian government’s spending on crypto amounts to around $10 million. “We are evacuating people, so we are sending money to buy oil, food and water. We are sending money to military personnel who can buy supplies locally,” said Michael Chobanian. Furthermore, the founder of Kuna stated that the government is buying drones and night vision goggles.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also the country’s minister of digital transformation, asked for donations in cryptocurrencies at the following addresses:
Bitcoin: 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P
Ethereum: 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14
USDT (trc20): TEFccmfQ38cZS1DTZVhsxKVDckA8Y6VfCy
Binance has announced a $10 million USD donation to local international and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The money should go to help people who left Ukraine and took refuge in neighboring countries. In addition, it created a donation initiative that has raised so far (11:42 GMT) US$ 5.982 million.
A group of opponents of the Russian government also quickly created a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to receive donations of cryptocurrencies and for an auction of NFTs of the flag of Ukraine in favor of the country. the auction of UkraineDAO started last Saturday and will last 72 hours. Donations pass in real time to the fund “Come Back Alive” (Come back alive). Vitalik Buterin, who was born in Russia and is against the war, supported the initiative.
DAO is an initiative of members of the PleasrDAO investment group, the NFT Trippy Labs and collective art group Pussy Riot.