The crypto fund was set up as an aid for Ukraine where donors from across the world contributed. The financial aid was to help Ukraine survive the war against Russia, especially when it came to buying military equipment and other items of interest.
Ukraine’s digital ministry first converted crypto-donations to fiat. Fiat refers to legal tender whose value is tied to a government-issued currency like the U.S. Dollar or Indian Rupees. Once they had the funds converted, Ukraine’s government spent $11 million on UAVs, and $2.69 million on military clothing. The rest of the expenditure can be seen in the tweet shared above.
As blockchains are transparent publicly distributed ledgers, it can be seen that more than 100,000 people have sent crypto to Ukraine. The country claims that some of these donations came from Russians, who have sent “significant amounts”. On this week’s episode of Yahoo Finance UK’s The Crypto Mile, Ukrainian deputy digital minister Alex Bornyakov described cryptocurrency donations to Ukraine as varying “from one dollars worth, to millions of dollars”.
He said that Ukraine turned to crypto at the start of the invasion because the nation needed help immediately. “If we used the traditional financial system it was going to take days,” he said. “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.”
Although his interview with The Crypto Mile via satellite internet link from his office in Ukraine was restricted by periodic power cuts, he was able to add: “Companies manufacturing goods like bulletproof vests, helmets and different kind of optics, even they were able to receive crypto”.
Ukraine shared a full expenditure list to respect transparency and to let its donors know how the amount was utilised. They did not shy away from showing that a significant amount of that fund was used for buying weapons. This decision, some said, is understandable given the circumstances the country’s in.
Earlier, it was reported that Ukraine has received a total of $100 million in crypto donations, according to Ukraine’s deputy minister at the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the de facto crypto spokesperson of the country. He also said during an emergency online briefing that $60 million of the $100 million was received by Kuna, Ukraine’s crypto exchange. Bornyakov indicated that the remaining money was sent to other smaller funds.
