Ukraine spends $15 million cryptos on military gear as crypto donations pour in as humanitarian aid

livemint.com:

Alex Bornyakov, deputy minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine on Friday informed that Ukraine has already spent $15 million of the donations it received in cryptocurrencies on military supplies, including bulletproof vests that were delivered Friday, as per Bloomberg report. 

The Ukrainian government anticipates doubling the $50 million of crypto donated so far in the next two or three days, Bornyakov said Friday in an Zoom interview from an undisclosed location inside Ukraine. Most of the donations have been in Bitcoin and Ether, Bloomberg report said. 

This comes at a time when many corporations have committed to help, including Amazon pledging $5 million to the U.N.'s refugee agency and other humanitarian organizations and plans to match up to $5 million more in donations made by its employees. Snapchat announced $15 million for humanitarian support. Airbnb offered free housing" to up to 100,000 refugees and is waiving its fees on the grassroots movement of people booking stays in Ukrainian homes, with no plans of using them, to get money quickly into the accounts of hosts. And Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has pledged $10 million toward aid. Cryptocurrencies donations themselves have emerged as a leading form of aid.

Meanwhile, the ministry has also received donations in Tether, Polkadot and Solana, he said. It also received hundreds of NFTs, including a valuable CryptoPunk.

The ministry’s team has now refocused on supporting the country’s digital infrastructure as it’s being attacked, making sure the government’s work is not interrupted, Bornyakov said. Gathering and using cryptocurrency donations is a part of its efforts as well.

To raise additional funds, the ministry is now working