Binance joins the crypto community with a $10M donation to Ukraine amidst Russian assault

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  • Crypto exchange Binance becomes the single biggest organization to make a crypto donation to Ukraine.
  • Since the Russian invasion, Ukraine has received more than $20 million in crypto donations, mostly in BTC and ETH.

The war-ridden country of Ukraine has resolved to use cryptocurrencies and digital assets for accepting donations from across the world. On Sunday, February 27, crypto exchange Binance pledged $10 million in crypto donations to overcome the humanitarian crisis.

This makes the single-largest donation to Ukraine from a global organization. The official announcement states:

Binance has committed $10 million minimum to help the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine through its Binance Charity Foundation. The donation will be split between major intergovernmental organizations and nonprofit organizations already on the ground, including UNICEF, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, iSans and People in Need, to help support displaced children and families in Ukraine and its neighboring countries.

Binance has also started a crypto-first crowdfunding site dubbed Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund that will allow people to donate crypto and provide emergency relief to refugees and children.

The total crypto donations to Ukraine have crossed $20 million so far. The Ukrainian government has also asked the crypto community to pledge support. Last Saturday, February 26, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov posted three addresses of crypto donations.

Furthermore, Fedorov has also asked all major crypto exchanges to block the addresses of all Russian users. In a tweet on Sunday, he wrote: “I’m asking all major crypto exchanges to block addresses of Russian users. It’s crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users”.

 Global crypto leaders join to support Ukraine

As per blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, “the majority of donations received to date have been in Bitcoin and Ether, although US Dollar stablecoins contribute a significant proportion”.

A staggering 56.4 percent of donations have come in Bitcoin (BTC), 31.8 percent have come in Ethereum (ETH) and the rest 12.9 percent is in stablecoins. Another popular crypto-journalist WuBlockchain reported:

Polkadot founder Gavin Wood said he would donate $5 million if the Ukrainian government provided Polkadot’s address. In addition, Tom Robinson stated that the largest (anonymous) donation received by the Ukrainian government was Bitcoin worth $1.86 million.

On the other hand, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has asked crypto donors to remain vigilant However, he has confirmed that the tweet shared by the Ukrainian minister is legit but has still asked users to “be slow and careful when sending irreversible crypto transactions”.

Related: Russians line up at ATMs for U.S dollars as harsh sanctions and SWIFT crackdown bite