Binance Commits $10 Million to Ukraine, Overall Crypto Donations Near $20M

Crypto has emerged as the method of choice for fundraising and donations as it offers a number of advantages over banks and traditional methods of money transfer which are slow, expensive, and often restricted and monitored.

The Ukrainian government has called upon the crypto community to pledge support in a series of appeals on social media over the weekend. Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov posted three addresses for crypto donations on Saturday.

Stand with the people of Ukraine
Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Ethereum. Bitcoin and Tether (USDTtrc20)

BTC — 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P

ETH — 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14

USDT (trc20) — TEFccmfQ38cZS1DTZVhsxKVDckA8Y6VfCy

— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 26, 2022

On Sunday, he appealed to crypto exchanges to block Russian users.

“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.”

Crypto Community Answers The Call

The crypto community has answered the call as almost $19 million in digital asset donations has been made since the Russian invasion began last week.

Reuters reported a total of $8 million on Feb. 27, however, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has updated its figures as of Feb 27, 23:50 UTC. The total received by the Ukrainian government is currently $18.9 million, the majority of which came over the past two days from Mr. Fedorov’s appeal.

The amount received has almost doubled over the past 24 hours.

Elliptic broke down the donations by crypto-asset, revealing “the majority of donations received to date have been in Bitcoin and Ether, although US Dollar stablecoins contribute a significant proportion.”

More than half, or 56.4%, has been donated in Bitcoin, 31.8% has been Ethereum, while 10.9% is stablecoins and less than one percent other altcoins. According to Chinese crypto outlet Wu Blockchain, the Polkadot founder was ready to donate … if there was a DOT address available.

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.

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) February 28, 2022

The firm added that crypto donations to Ukrainian volunteer and hacking groups have also spiked since Russia launched its invasion on Thursday.

Binance Donates $10 Million

The world’s largest crypto exchange Binance has joined the call with its own $10 million in donations. The company announced the initiative on Feb. 27, stating that:

“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.”

It has set up a crypto donation web portal called the Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund. At the time of writing, it had received 156 BTC worth around $5.8 million from 214 donors. Binance stated that it had pledged just over 16,000 BNB tokens to the cause.