Ukraine has raised more than $17 million in cryptocurrency donations since the government has tweeted donation addresses. Right after we reported on Saturday, donations have increased to over $10 million.
Although many have raised their eyebrows about this interference in foreign geopolitical matters, donations ares still coming in by the Minute. There is no doubt that the war is something people care for and want to personally engage by sending funds to support. Whether that does more harm than good is a separate question.
The Ukrainian government started soliciting donations Saturday morning. The official Twitter account for Ukraine (@Ukraine) tweeted: “Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, ethereum, and USDT.” The tweet also includes a BTC address and an address for ETH and USDT donations. Just a few days earlier, Millions were raised through Bitcoin donations from a non-profit project called ‘Come Back Alive’.
The aggregated amount raised exceeds $17 million as blockchain data analytics firm Elliptic said Sunday:
“Twitter accounts belonging to the Ukrainian government have posted pleas for cryptocurrency donations. The addresses mentioned in the tweets have already received $10.6 million across 13,670 transactions,” Elliptic detailed. “This includes a single donation worth $1.86 million, which appears to have originated from the sale of NFTs [non-fungible tokens] originally intended to raise funds for Julian Assange.”
The blockchain analytics firm continued:
The majority of donations received to date have been in bitcoin and ether, although US dollar stablecoins contribute a significant proportion.
Earlier this month, the country’s parliament passed a bill to legalize digital assets but it still does not recognize bitcoin as legal tender. By contrast, Russia can’t decide whether to ban or regulate bitcoin. The EU as well as the US have postponed important regulatory decisions with the start of the war.
Now it’s just a mess and anything goes. The information war and the crypto war are colliding.
“To those who want to help in bitcoin. Bitcoin is officially legit in Ukraine — just like this account and this retweet. Don’t mind the comments of our Russian ‘brothers,’” Olexander Scherba, a longtime Ukrainian diplomat, tweeted Saturday.
Ukraine apparently deleted its first post announcing the country would take crypto. “Stand with the people of Ukraine as we defend ourselves against Russian aggression,” the now-deleted tweet read. Its second post simply reads: “Stand with the people of Ukraine.” A few minutes later, Ukraine tweeted, “Sorry the team is exhausted without sleep, we make mistakes in tweets & tweet them again.”
