With Ukraine – Russia war, people from around the world donated to Ukraine valued over US $70 million as per the report published by Chainalysis. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT as the widely accept form of cryptocurrency as per the Government official twitter account of Ukraine.
What Makes Cryptocurrency special for Ukraine ?
Ukraine official mentioned that crypto has been helpful due to its speed of transactions. In recent interview with Yahoo finance, ministry of Ukraine states that if he were to use trasditional banking it would have taken days while as with crypto the donations was available in seconds.
“Alona Shevchenko, co-founder Ukraine DAO, told Yahoo Finance UK – “In the beginning of the full scale invasion a year ago, Ukraine found itself in an extremely tough situation and those first days were absolutely critical for our defence”
Yahoo
“If we used the traditional financial system it was going to take days. We were able to secure the purchase of vital items in no time at all via crypto, and what is amazing is that around 60% of suppliers were able to accept crypto, I didn’t expect this.”
Ukraine Minister
Chainalysis Analysis :
Often negative use of cryptocurrencies is highlighted in media, they have also had a quicker contribution on Ukraine in several ways. One such instance is the donation of over $56 million worth of cryptocurrencies to addresses provided by the Ukrainian government since the start of the war, as determined in March 2022. As of February 2023, these donations have increased to nearly $70 million. BTC and ETH, two of the most widely used cryptocurrencies, accounted for the majority of donations, as illustrated in the graph below as per Chainalysis.
Charitable organizations have received supplementary donations, including those in the form of NFTs, such as UkraineDAO’s auction of a Ukrainian flag NFT for $6.5 million. While these donations may not match up to fiat donations, they showcase the generosity of cryptocurrency enthusiasts worldwide and Ukraine’s openness to accepting a diverse range of digital assets
The above totals 65,912,215 while rest of the donations are in other crypto which was not shown in the report.
Previously Fedorov did mention how the money was spent as seen in Twitter below:
Conclusion
While regulators around the world are started to nip the bud with cryptocurrency while countries and larger institutions like Blackrock are seeing value long term. Once the dust settles down, we may see crypto picking up over time. Its very clear that Ukraine has a positive experience at times of need.
Additional Topics of Interest
Chainalysis Report: Ukraine War Accelerated Russian Stablecoin Adoption
Featured pic from Unsplash
