Borderless Cryptocurrencies Help Ukraine Defend Borders
Borderless Cryptocurrencies Help Ukraine Defend Borders
Cash.Tech Newsletter #19: Ukraine lands over $55M in cryptocurrency donations amid ongoing war
It’s now over a week since Russia invaded its southwestern neighbor Ukraine. The ongoing war is the most high-profile in Europe in several decades, and has understandably created a division between the warring nations and their respective allies. However, most of the world is supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty, a fact evidenced by the generous cryptocurrency donations that the country has received from around the world.
This week’s Cash.Tech Newsletter reviews how cryptocurrencies are proving truly borderless by helping Ukraine defend its borders. The Cash.Tech Wallet enables anyone anywhere to move value, and the Ukrainian situation demonstrates that enabling such a global monetary system has become a necessity in this era. We will first bring you a dose of development updates from the team.
Cash.Tech development update
The Cash.Tech development team remains hard at work towards the launch of the hotly anticipated Merchant Protocol. We are pleased to provide a further snippet of the amazing work done by our development team in the video on our Twitter account. Viewers can notice how the merchant protocol integrates $CATE tokens as a primary payment option for shoppers and merchants on the application.
The team is now in the process of designing the product payment process. This covers the part where a buyer can securely pay for products and services listed by a Cash.Tech merchant. The team is also developing a unique payment listing page to give merchants an overview of all payments received for their products.
Lastly, the community can rest assured that the team is working tirelessly to get the latest iOS version of Cash.Tech Wallet listed on the Apple Store. We will keep the community informed regarding development efforts and other broader efforts to promote the adoption of the Cash.Tech Wallet.
$55M in crypto donations pour into Ukraine
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, several countries rallied to Ukraine’s support both verbally, and through other measures, to contain Russian aggression. However, the average internet user was left with limited options to support the Ukrainian cause. They also faced other concerns regarding how to ensure their donations were directed to the right sectors of the Ukrainian defense effort.
On February 26, 2022, these concerns were resolved when the official Ukrainian Twitter account announced that the country was now accepting crypto donations. Within 24 hours, the country received over $4 million in donations, adding to the over $5 million worth of cryptocurrencies donated to Come Back Alive, a non-governmental organization (NGO) supporting Ukrainian soldiers. The NGO’s shift to crypto followed the deletion of its fundraising page by Patreon, citing policy violations. Roughly one week later, blockchain research firm Elliptic reports that the Ukrainian government and NGO have landed over $55.7 million in cryptocurrency donations.
(Source: Elliptic)
The total value of donations received by the Ukrainian government is $47.7 million, while the Come Back Alive NGO has received $8 million. With the total number of donations currently hovering around 99,000 transactions, donors are averaging $5,828 per contribution. Assuming these transactions involve different entities, it is safe to conclude that more than 100,000 persons/organizations worldwide have backed the Ukrainian defense effort this week.
Among several donations, a few have been remarkable. The Ukrainian Ethereum address received a $1.8 million donation that apparently originates from the sale of NFTs tied to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) working towards the freedom of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The government further received a CryptoPunk NFT worth over $200,000. Polkadot founder Gavin Wood donated $5.8 million while Tron Founder Justin Sun donated $200,000.
At the time of writing, the Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses held by the Ukrainian government still hold $7.2 million worth of ETH and Ethereum-based assets. The Bitcoin address has received over 242 BTC (appr. $10 million), but maintains only a balance of 4 BTC (appr. $166,000). There have also been donations from other cryptocurrencies including Polkadot, Tron (TRC-20), Solana and Dogecoin.
Interestingly, Ukraine’s fundraising efforts through cryptocurrency are far from over. On March 3, 2022, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced the country would now raise funds for its armed forces through an NFT sale. Although further details about the sale were withheld, a self-named UkraineDAO had already raised $6.75 million through the sale of Ukrainian Flag NFT, suggesting a government-backed NFT sale could raise even more.
The Ukrainian situation has demonstrated that cryptocurrencies can become an invaluable tool for global crowdfunding. How sovereign nations and organizations will harness this opportunity in the coming months and years will be interesting to keep an eye on.
Cash.Tech supports self-custodial borderless cryptocurrency donations
Cash.Tech Wallet is an ideal solution for cryptocurrency users seeking to support fundraising efforts around the world. With support for several cryptocurrencies and an emphasis on self-custodial access, users can remain in full control of their assets while donating to crowdfunding campaigns that align with their interests.
Cash.Tech is already live on Mainnet for Android and iOS users. Android users can now access the app on Google Playstore, with the iOS version coming to the Apple Store in the coming weeks! Apple Users can access Cash.Tech via https://testflight.apple.com/join/In3h8jr9.