Cointelegraph data shows that the total amount of crypto donations to the Ukrainian military, government and charities has exceeded $37 million as of the publication. These include Bitcoin ( Bitcoin), Ether( ETH), and Tether ( UST), as well as other altcoins. These numbers do not include items such as donations between individuals and are based only on projects that have been tracked.
“Reserve fund of Ukraine” is the largest recipient of crypto donations. It’s funded by Kuna, the country’s native cryptocurrency exchange. According its official Telegram channel the exchange has raised about $13 million in crypto to Ukraine mainly through BTC and USDT.
Next, Come Back Alive (a non-governmental organization that claims it is supporting the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ resistance efforts) has received more than $7.2 million in BTC donations to its wallet address. It also includes donations received prior to the War in Donbas. Cointelegraph talked to Ukrainian crypto enthusiasts who confirmed its legitimacy.
UkraineDAO is also led by Nadya Tolokonnikova, a Russian feminist protest group. It seeks to sell one nonfungible token or NFT flag, to help fund Ukrainian civil organizations. The current highest bid for NFT is at $2.89million USD.
To help Ukraine, activists from the blockchain community established Unchain Fund. This initiative supports a variety of altcoins including NEAR, Binance Coin ( BNB), Binance USD(BUSD) and many more. The fund has raised over $1.5 million in crypto since its launch, mainly through NEAR token donations. Cointelegraph spoke with Anna Tutova, Unchain Fund member and prominent socialite within the crypto community.
We raise money to pay for medical, evacuation, and repair costs. To be transparent, we only raise funds in crypto and use multisig wallets. Vitalik Buterin and Solana are also supporting Unchain Fund.
Braiins is another notable effort. Braiins is the oldest and largest mining pool in the world. Braiins donated 10 BTC as well as a portion its hash rate to Ukraine. RELI3F, Web3’s humanitarian aid initiative, has already to three crypto funds supporting Ukraine.
Crypto enthusiasts also want the Ukrainian government to accept donations of cryptocurrencies to other altcoins than BTC, ETH, and USDT. Sunny Lu, cofounder and CEO at Vechain, tweeted Monday:
Establish a VET wallet, and I’ll give $8m. Comparing people’s lives is futile.
Sunny LU, VeChain V @sunshinelu24
February 28, 2022
Gavin Wood, cofounder of Ethereum, and creator of Polkadot DOT and Kusama wrote:
If you provide a DOT address, I will personally contribute $5m.
— Gavin Wood (@gavofyork)
February 27, 2022
Despite cryptocurrency fundraising efforts for Ukraine seeing a lot of success, users took to social networking to warn one another to be careful, always verify the authenticity of donation links, and avoid scammers. One example is the comment by an alleged con artist who claimed to be the official crypto address in order to help the Ukrainian government.
