Bitcoin (BTC) Regains $40k as Donations Flood into Supporting Ukraine

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has highlighted how deeply imbedded cryptocurrencies have become in global politics. Millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin have been donated to support Ukraine since the invasion, helping to push the price of BTC back above $40,000 after a month of losses.

After hitting $45k in early February, Bitcoin faced harsh resistance and collapsed throughout the month back down to $35k. However, despite an initial drop when the invasion first began, both BTC and Ukraine appear to be benefiting off of a huge swell of support from the crypto community. Ukraine has received over $37 million worth of donations in cryptocurrency, including $10 million from Binance and the rest from mostly anonymous sources.

In comparison, the Russian ruble has collapsed against the US dollar as the UK, US, and EU impose sanctions and move to block banks from using the SWIFT payment network. Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov also asked major crypto exchanges to freeze wallets linked to Russian politicians and ‘sabotage ordinary users’. However, most crypto exchanges have said they don’t intend to punish innocent crypto users, especially as many Russian citizens are against the war.

Bitcoin is now trading just under $41,000 after a rapid jump from $38k in the past two hours.