Crypto fund for Ukraine: How cryptocurrencies are funding Ukraine’s fight against Russia

moneycontrol.com:

The Ukrainian government has gone all out soliciting aid from the cryptocurrency community and the efforts have borne fruit. Since February 26 when officials began tweeting calls for donations, the country has received over $71.66 million of its $200-million target as on March 31.

Just four days after its calls for donations began, Ukraine’s official wallets (then two, which were later merged) attracted more than $10.2 million (9.2 million euros). Since then, close to $100 million in cryptocurrency has been raised and Michael Chobanian, founder of Ukrainian crypto exchange Kuna, said his platform accounts for 60 percent of all donations.

As of mid-March, Ukraine had spent around $34 million of the funds  either as crypto tokens where accepted or converting it to traditional currency, Alex Bornyakov, the country’s deputy minister for digital transformation, told The Associated Press.

The government has also taken steps to formally welcome crypto into its policy. In March, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also signed a cryptocurrency regulatory framework into law.

Notably, data from the US’ Congressional Research Service report (dated January) shows that crypto donations so far equal close to 1 percent of Ukraine’s annual pre-war defence budget.

How do the donations happen?

The ministry of digital transformation of Ukraine has set up a website ‘Aid for Ukraine’ via which you can donate cryptocurrencies to the fundraising account of the National Bank of Ukraine. Funds will be used towards the nation’s humanitarian aid programmes and the armed forces, it claims.

“Don’t leave us alone with the enemy,” the website entreats, and donations have been pouring in.

The site also lists the cryptos accepted—Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum