Ukraine Officially Accepts Crypto Donations
Per a Friday report by crypto.news, people were already sending crypto donations to Ukraine hours after the start of the Russian invasion. The Ukrainian defense ministry requested donations hours after the attack but declined to accept cryptos citing new regulations. However, people kept pushing for acceptance of the crypto donations till yesterday when the government officially announced that it agrees to BTC, ETH, and USDT donations.
It’s Official! The Ukrainian Government Now Accepts BTC, ETH & USDT Donations
The Ukrainian government took a significant leap of faith on Saturday by officially accepting crypto donations. Finally, they gave in to people’s demands of crypto donation options to support them in defense against Russia. The story comes as an update after crypto.news reported that the Ukrainian defense ministry requested donations but declined crypto donations hours after the attack.
The report also added that people were pushing the ministry to compromise and accept cryptos this time only. However, there were no official information or crypto wallet addresses for such donations until yesterday.
The Ukrainian government tweeted:
“Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and USDT.”
It also added crypto wallet addresses for the facilitation of donations. It was as if the crypto space was waiting for the official addresses to be offered to contribute towards Ukraine’s cause. The two wallets collected cryptos worth about $5.4M within the first eight hours of their reveal.
Now, the contributions through the official addresses are increasing faster than for the NGOs. It shows that the people are confident on the contributions as the crypto space is known to be prone to scammers. Regarding scamming, BBC reported that concerned parties had unmasked atleast one social media post for copying a legitimate NGO post but with swapped BTC address.
Crypto Donations in Ukraine Exceed $12M
When crypto.news first reported on the crypto contributions towards Ukraine, the NGOs had received around 19 BTC. The recent figures are mindblowing as the government raised over $5.4M within eight hours. The total sum contributed to the NGOs and the Ukrainian government surpasses $12M.
According to data tracker Elliptic, one NGO vowed to support the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has raised over $3M worth of BTC. It also added that the Ukrainian government had raised over $6.1M through crypto donations. In the sum, about $1.86M came from one address which appears to originate from the sale of NFTs intended initially to help Julian Assange.
Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian NGO that supports the military, has received the greatest support. It is the most popular NGO supporting Ukraine currently as multiple social media posts have advertised it. However, its page on membership platform Patreon was closed on Feb 24, as Patreon advises against military funding.
The ban only made it better for ‘Come Back Alive’ as the donations increased exponentially by Feb 25, 2022. Yesterday, it attracted significant contributions featuring a single one of 80 BTC. Other pro-Ukrainian organizations have also appealed for crypto donations. The generosity of the crypto world may influence governments forcing them to rethink how they view these assets.
