Crypto donations collected by the government in Kiev since the Russian invasion began have reached nearly $70 million, according to Chainalysis. Ether is the most donated crypto, followed by Bitcoin and stablecoin Tether, the blockchain intelligence firm said in a report.
Ukraine has received millions of dollars in various coins from the global crypto community
Nearly $70 million in cryptocurrency has been transferred to addresses published by the Ukrainian government to fund defense and other expenses, blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis revealed on the first anniversary of the conflict in the Eastern European country
Authorities in Kiev began accepting digital currency donations shortly after Russia launched its invasion at the end of February 2022; in March, Chainalysis said more than $56 million worth of cryptocurrency was donated to a Ukrainian government wallet.
Other digital donations were made to addresses posted by charitable organizations to raise funds for humanitarian efforts. According to a recent report by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, Ukrainian donors sent a total of more than $212 million in cryptocurrency.
“While such donations pale in comparison to fiat donations, they demonstrate the philanthropy of cryptocurrency enthusiasts around the world and Ukraine’s willingness to accept a wide variety of digital assets.” Chainalysis commented in its blog post. It also noted that the majority of donations were made in; BTCand; ETH; and the majority of donations were made in
. It is the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
The company noted that besides supporting military efforts, the donation could promote crypto adoption and strengthen Ukraine’s war-hit economy.” Adoption by Ukraine has surged over the course of the war,” Chainalysis remarked. The country ranked third in its 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index.
At the same time, according to the researchers, Russian adoption declined despite that side also soliciting crypto donations; according to Chainalysis, the number of pro-Russian groups accepting crypto funds for their activities rose to about 100, but they raised less than $5.4 million The number of groups that have accepted crypto funds for their activities has increased to about 100, but they have raised less than $5.4 million.
Another finding worth noting is that in many cases, such funds are sent to mainstream centralized exchanges as opposed to riskier exchanges – 87.3% of the digital money received by pro-Russian groups went to established coin trading platforms. Chainalysis also found that the crypto market is too illiquid to support large-scale Russian sanctions evasion.
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