Ukraine Has Raised More Than $54 million In Crypto Donations So Far

By Kevin • March 5, 2022 3:16 pm • Comments

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has recently brought the spotlight to the role of cryptocurrencies in today’s global environment and their potential use cases.

In particular, their use to send large amounts of capital through international borders has been highlighted with the Ukrainian government so far collecting more than $50 million in crypto asset donations.

The majority of the contributions consist of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT where the Ukrainian government sharing its various wallet addresses on the government’s official Twitter account.

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This is a new milestone as the government has never done something like this, but had little choice as the country’s central bank started to limit digital money transfers.

CNBC reports:

Accepting donations in crypto is new for the Ukrainian government. Up until Saturday, all donations had to travel via traditional payment channels, but on Feb. 26, the government decided to get creative.

Twitter accounts belonging to the Ukrainian government began to solicit cryptoasset donations for the first time.

The move came after the country’s central bank cracked down on digital money transfers in connection with a nationwide declaration of martial law.

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have become more popular since they allow users to bypass financial institutions that might block payments to Ukraine.

Elliptic says that the bitcoin, ethereum, tron, polkadot, dogecoin and solana addresses listed in the tweets have received over 96,000 cryptocurrency donations, with a total value of $46.7 million going directly to the government.

NFT donations have also surged since the conflict as it was reported that several valuable NFTs worth hundreds of thousands were donated to the government’s Ethereum account.

UkraineDao has also auctioned NFTs related to Ukraine such as the Ukraine flag which was reportedly auctioned off for a total value of $6.5 million.

This was a new record as it now makes it the most expensive NFT ever sold and marks a new milestone within the emerging industry.

Proceeds from the sale will be donated and used to provide relief in the war.

MSN reports:

Meanwhile, UkraineDAO has auctioned off an NFT of the Ukrainian flag for $6.5 million in ether, which makes it among the most expensive NFT ever sold.

Elliptic says that the proceeds are to be donated to Come Back Alive.

But even as cryptocurrencies open up new paths to cash for a country fighting off a major offensive, the numbers pale by comparison to the cash flowing into the country from international allies such as the U.S.

In addition to the $350 million that the White House authorized in military aid to Ukraine, the Biden administration is asking Congress for $10 billion in immediate emergency aid to bolster humanitarian supplies, security forces, and the economies in Ukraine and its central European partners.

Meanwhile, USAID has pledged another $54 million in humanitarian aid to Kyiv.

Although crypto transactions like Bitcoin are still insignificant when compared to total transactions in fiat currencies like the USD, the recent conflict shows that this might just the beginning of what crypto could be and how popular blockchains like Ripple (XRP) and Bitcoin (BTC) could lead the growing decentralized financial landscape in the future.

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