During the first week of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukrainian government has reached out for crypto donations on Twitter to raise funds. The country is now accepting Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT) and Ethereum (ETH) donations to be used for supporting its civilians and troops.
Although the government of Ukraine already sought help from various international organisations, the official Twitter account of Ukraine extended its call for crypto donations.
Posted on February 26, 2022, the tweet said, ‘Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT’, with each one including their respective crypto wallet addresses.
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister also tweeted the same crypto wallet addresses for BTC and ETH but with a different one for USDT.
Crypto entrepreneurs such as Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, suspected that the Twitter accounts where crypto donations are being requested were hacked. However, Olexander Scherba, Ambassador of Ukraine has confirmed its legitimacy directly to the American diplomat, Tomicah Tillemann.
After the confirmation from Tillemann, Buterin deleted his warning but still advises crypto users to be ‘slow and careful when sending irreversible crypto transactions’.
He also shared a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), UkraineDAO which is led by the frontman of a Russian rock band known for their disapproval of the government, Nadya Tolokonnikova. The DAO released thousands of Ukrainian flags in the form of NFTs. All of the proceeds raised through the sales of the NFTs will be used solely to support Ukrainian citizens who are suffering during the war.
Other prominent crypto entrepreneurs such as FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried offered monetary support to Ukraine. On February 25, he tweeted that he gave $25 to each Ukrainian account holder who trades on FTX, saying ‘do what you gotta do’.
As per Elliptic, a blockchain analysis firm, people have given over $400,000 BTC to the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Come Back Alive, which provides military equipment, food supplies and medicines to the local army. A mysterious contributor also donated over 80 BTC or over $3 million to the organisation.
Even if cryptocurrencies have high volatility, digital stablecoins such as USDT are pegged to the US Dollars, making them less volatile due to fewer value fluctuations.
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