According to data compiled by Cointelegraph, at the time of the press release, the amount of donations in cryptocurrency sent to the Ukrainian government, military and charitable organizations exceeded $37 million. These currencies include Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT) and other digital currencies. The numbers are also based on tracked projects and do not take into account elements such as interpersonal donations.
The largest recipient of cryptocurrency donations appears to be the Reserve Fund of Ukraine, which is backed by the country’s original cryptocurrency exchange Kuna. According to the official Telegram channel, the exchange has raised almost $13 million in Ukrainian cryptocurrency, mainly through BTC, ETH and USDT.
Back then, the NGO Come Back Alive, which claims to be helping the Ukrainian armed forces resist, received more than $7.2 million in BTC donations to its wallet address. This includes previous donations, albeit small, received during the war in Donbass that began in 2014. Cointelegraph spoke to Ukrainian crypto enthusiasts about the charity, which confirmed its legitimacy.
Then there is the UkraineDAO, led by Nadya Tolokonnikova (Russian feminist protest music group) Pussy Riot and seeking to sell a single promiscuous token, or NFT, to fund Ukrainian civil society organizations. Currently, the highest NFT stake is $2.89 million.
In addition, blockchain community activists created the Unchain Fund to help Ukraine. The initiative supports a large number of altcoins, including NEAR, Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD) and others. Since its launch, the fund has raised over $1.5 million in cryptocurrencies, mostly through donations of NEAR tokens. Anna Tutova, a member of the Unchain Fund and a prominent public figure in the crypto community, told Cointelegraph:
“We are raising funds for medicines, evacuation and repair needs, food and clothing. We only raise funds in cryptocurrencies and use multisig wallets for complete transparency. The Unchain Fund is also supported by Vitalik Buterin, Solana, Near, Celo Foundation, Harmony, Polygon, Gnosis, Gitcoin and many more.”
Other notable efforts include Braiins, the world’s oldest mining pool, which donated 10 BTC plus a portion of the hashrate to help Ukraine. The Web3 Humanitarian Initiative RELI3F also sent 185 ETH to three cryptocurrencies supporting Ukraine.
But crypto enthusiasts are also asking the Ukrainian government to extend the acceptance of cryptocurrencies to other currencies, not just BTC, ETH and USDT. On Monday, Sunny Lu, co-founder and CEO of Vechain, tweeted:
Around the same time, Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Polkadot (DOT) and Kusama, wrote:
While Ukraine’s efforts to raise cryptocurrencies have gained momentum, users have taken to social media to warn each other to be vigilant, always check the authenticity of donation links, and beware of scams. In one example, the alleged artist commented on all the posts, claiming to be posting the official cryptocurrency address to help the Ukrainian government.
