Ukraine Crypto Donations Top $29M Amid Russia Crisis

$29 million has been raised for Ukraine through multiple crypto funding initiatives, including an official plea from the Ukrainian government.

Ukraine Receives Over $29M in Crypto Donations

Crypto donations are flooding into Ukraine following Russia’s attack on the country. The crypto community has raised over $29 million in digital assets through several funding initiatives.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s official Twitter account posted a request for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether donations. So far, the official addresses posted for donations have received over $4.6 million in Bitcoin and around $7 million in Ethereum, Tether, and other digital assets. The money has already been moved out of the wallets as Ukraine will most likely need to exchange it for fiat currency before using it to support its military defense efforts.

In addition to the $11.6 million the government has raised, the Ukrainian nonprofit organization Come Back Alive raised over 188 Bitcoin, currently worth around $7.2 million, over the last five days. The charity, which was founded in 2014 following the Russian annexation of Crimea, had initially tried fundraising via Patreon. However, when Patreon blocked the Come Back Alive’s page and froze more than $250,000 of donations due to a breach of its terms of service agreement, it began raising funds in Bitcoin. 

Nadya Tolokonnikova, who founded the protest performance group Pussy Riot, Trippy Labs, PleasrDAO, and other activists have also formed UkraineDAO, which is currently auctioning a unique NFT of the Ukrainian flag. The current highest bid is 1,102.5 Ethereum worth around $2.9 million with two days remaining. The funds raised will go to Ukrainian civilians suffering from the war. UkraineDAO has also separately raised over $390,000 in direct Ethereum and USDC donations.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has also organized a crypto crowdfunding initiative dubbed “Humanity First – Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund,” which has already raised over $5.9 million from 237 different donors. Binance has also pledged to donate $10 million to intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to provide emergency relief to refugees and children affected by the war.

Another humanitarian aid initiative founded by a group of NFT enthusiasts called RELI3F has raised funds by selling NFTs by popular artists in the space. The collection dropped early Saturday and sold out within 30 seconds, raising around $1 million worth of Ethereum at current prices. Roughly half of the funds have already been deployed to help the people of Ukraine, the project revealed on Twitter today.

The sum total for each of these efforts comes to around $29 million, and most of the fundraisers are still open.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.