During the first week of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the government of Ukraine reached out to the cryptocurrency community on Twitter to raise funds to support civilians and troops. Ukraine has started accepting Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Tether (USDT) as donations.
Against the backdrop of military threats throughout the country of Ukraine, the government of Ukraine turned to several international organizations for help. But given the importance of time, Ukraine’s official Twitter account expanded the request for help to Crypto Twitter.
In addition, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov also shared the addresses of three cryptocurrency wallets, urging the crypto community to make a donation and help Ukraine in the fight against Russian troops. While the BTC and ETH addresses remain, Fedorov’s USDT wallet address is based on TRC20 (different from the one used by the official Ukrainian Twitter account).
Prominent crypto entrepreneurs, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, first suspected that accounts requesting cryptocurrency donations had been hacked. However, later the American diplomat Tomika Tillman confirmed the legitimacy of the Ukrainian ambassador Oleksandr Sherpa.
Ukrainian refugees turned civilians reported losing access to their official savings and credit cards. According to the UN, by February 26, more than 150,000 people had been deported from Ukraine.
While there has been confusion over the intended use of cryptocurrencies, Buterin shared another decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) initiative that only targets Ukrainian citizens.
UkraineDAO, led by Nadya Tolkonikova of Pussy Riots, has launched a 1/1 Ukrainian flag non-fungible (NFT) token to raise money for Ukrainian civil organizations to help those suffering during the war started by Putin.
On February 24, Cointelegraph reported that the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine received several requests from foreigners to donate cryptocurrency.
Although not confirmed, it is currently assumed that the procedures for the addresses shared by the Ukrainian authorities will be used directly by the authorities, and the DAO procedures will be redirected to the benefit of citizens through NGOs.
Related topics: The crypto community reacts to the Russian war in Ukraine
Since February 24, well-known crypto entrepreneurs have been making active efforts to help Ukrainians. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was one of the first to provide financial support to FTX traders from Ukraine.
