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Crypto Donations to Ukraine Jump to $20M

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Chain.com CEO Deepak Thapliyal have contributed.

Ukranian Flag (Getty Images)
Ukranian Flag (Getty Images)

The Ukraine government’s call for donations to resist the Russian invasion and provide aid to those affected has been embraced by the crypto community with nearly $20 million raised in ether and bitcoin.

  • Earlier on Monday, the donation figure hit the $10 million mark, but a significant uptick in donations during the day drove the figure past $20 million, according to on-chain data reviewed by Elliptic.
  • On Monday, Binance announced it would donate $10 million crypto to the effort and launched a crowdfunding portal to encourage its users to donate more.
  • According to on-chain data, over $6 million has been received in the effort’s Ethereum wallet.
  • That includes $1.1 million in tether and $109,000 in USDC.
  • On-chain data shows that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried donated $250,000 in tether and Chain.com CEO Deepak Thapliyal donated 100 ether (about $277,000).
  • Data shows that Ukraine is holding the crypto in a ERC-20 wallet and hasn’t made a withdrawal.
  • Ukraine’s Bitcoin wallet has received $4.2 million. The country has already withdrawn $2.9 million of that amount.
  • Over the weekend, Russian art collective Pussy Riot helped form a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that raised $3 million in ether for the war effort and humanitarian relief.
  • A separate wallet for donations to the Ukraine army, run by the charity Come Back Alive, has raised $6 million since its inception in mid-2021.
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Read more: Ukraine Government Is Using Crypto Aid to Purchase Critical Supplies

UPDATE (Feb. 28, 13:01 UTC): Updates donation figure throughout, adds Binance's donation in second bullet.

Sam Reynolds

Sam Reynolds is a senior reporter based in Asia. Sam was part of the CoinDesk team that won the 2023 Gerald Loeb award in the breaking news category for coverage of FTX's collapse. Prior to CoinDesk, he was a reporter with Blockworks and a semiconductor analyst with IDC.

Sam Reynolds