The country’s official Twitter account issued an appeal for donations via bitcoin, ethereum, and the stablecoin tether on Saturday, only days after Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukraine received $4 million in donations after tweeting about its cryptocurrency wallet. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister, verified the plea for donations on his Twitter account, asking people to “Stand with Ukraine.”
Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT.
BTC – 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P
ETH and USDT (ERC-20) – 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) February 26, 2022
Ukraine received $4 million in donations
These wallets had received nearly $4 million in cryptocurrency as of the time of publication. The tweet and wallet were a legitimate government effort, according to Yarema Dukh, a communications expert who helped build up the official Ukraine Twitter account in 2016. He claimed he thought the crypto monies would be used to “exterminate as many Russian inhabitants as possible,” but he couldn’t say for sure.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops have since entered Kyiv, putting the country’s democratically elected government in jeopardy. Some people, including Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, were first concerned that the tweet was sent by scammers who had hijacked the account. Buterin tweeted that he had received confirmation after speaking with the vice prime minister, but advised people to be cautious when giving cryptocurrency donations.
According to the ledger, Deepak Thapliyal, the CEO of Chain.com, a blockchain technology business, has made the greatest donation of 100ETH (about $278,000). “I felt obliged to do my part to help when I heard the Ukrainian government had asked donations in the form of cryptocurrency,” Thapiyal told BuzzFeed News. “Because cryptocurrency donations are borderless and near-instant, I’m hopeful that the government in that country can tap into it as fast as possible to assist those in need.”
Bitcoin has long been accepted by Ukrainian NGOs and volunteer groups. According to Elliptic, a blockchain analytics company, the volunteer group Come Back Alive, which sends supplies to the Ukrainian military, has been asking for cryptocurrency donations since 2018. Elliptic reported that since the invasion began on Thursday, the government and NGOs have received $11 million in bitcoin donations.
The country is particularly well-equipped to handle cryptocurrency donations. It enacted a law this fall to legalize and regulate bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, making it one of only a few countries to do so. Ukraine has become a crypto hotspot due to its low taxes and a big supply of IT skills.
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