In the early days of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian government, along with other charities and independent media, leveraged cryptocurrency to expedite transfers of money in the form of donations. By accepting crypto, Ukraine benefits from the speed of transfer – instantaneous – and the low cost to enable the transaction. The unprovoked war by Russia has now raged on for almost one month.
As was previously reported, tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies poured into the Ukrainian digital wallets.
#HelpUkraineWithCrypto
Today, the government of Ukraine has stepped up its game by launching its own website to directly accept crypto donations. The site, available here, is being operated in partnership with FTX, Kuna, and everstake – Kuna and everstake are companies based in Ukraine.
While originally accepting only BTC and ETH, Ukraine is now accepting Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, Terra, Solana, Polkadot, Cardano, Dogecoin, Hedera, Monero, ICOIN, and Casper.
As it stands today, over $60 million dollars has been raised from individual donations, according to the site.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of FTX, is quoted on the home page stating:
“[I am] incredibly excited and humbled to be working with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Everstake, and others to support crypto donations to Ukraine.”
Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, states:
“Every helmet, bulletproof vest and night vision device save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. Thus, we must continue to support our defenders. Thanks so much to everyone from the crypto community for supporting Ukraine!”
Slava Ukraina
All funds will be used to help the armed forces of Ukraine as well as supporting the beleaguered population.
By launching a hosted sited to directly accept crypto donations, Ukraine is removing an element of concern regarding the legitimacy of the charity.
FTX is converting the crypto funds received into fiat and sends money directly to the National Bank of Ukraine. This is said to be the first-ever instance of a cryptocurrency exchange directly cooperating with a public financial entity to support crypto donations.
If you are more comfortable with an old-school wire transfer, account information is available on the website as well.
