Crypto Donations Pour in After Ukraine Government Asks for Bitcoin and Ether — $17 Million Raised so Far

Ukraine has raised more than $17 million in cryptocurrency donations since Russia began its invasion. Over $10 million were donated directly to the crypto wallets posted by the Ukrainian government about 24 hours after the government solicited donations in bitcoin, ether, and tether.

Crypto Community Responds to Ukrainian Government’s Plea for Cryptocurrency Donations

The Ukrainian government began soliciting cryptocurrency donations Saturday morning. The official Twitter account for 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. Mykhailo Fedorov, vice prime minister of Ukraine, also tweeted a similar message.

Following the Ukrainian government’s solicitation of crypto donations, blockchain data analytics firm Elliptic said Sunday:

The Ukrainian government and NGOs providing support to the military have raised $17.2 million through thousands of cryptocurrency donations since the start of the invasion.

“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.

Elliptic further pointed out that crypto supporters are not just donating cryptocurrencies to the Ukrainian government. “People are also sending NFTs to the Ukrainian government’s Ethereum account. One such NFT has a value of approximately $300,” the firm wrote.

Olexander Scherba, Ukraine’s ambassador to Austria between 2014 and 2021, commented on the Ukrainian government soliciting crypto donations. He tweeted:

To those who want to help in bitcoin. Bitcoin is officially legit in Ukraine.

Besides donations to the Ukrainian government, one non-governmental organization (NGO) has received a substantial amount of cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin.com News reported Friday that “Come Back Alive” had raised more than $5 million in bitcoin. At the time of writing, the organization has received 170.05722596 BTC, worth about $6.6 million at the current bitcoin price.