https://ift.tt/ZAj3Mfb Donations to Ukraine Top $30 Million as Russia’s Offensive Continues

Cryptocurrency donations sent to the Ukrainian government and several non-governmental organizations meant to support the country amidst its ongoing war with Russia have topped the $30 million mark.

According to on-chain analytics firm Elliptic, the Ukrainian government and NGOs supporting the country’s military efforts and humanitarian causes have raised $20 million across 17,451 transactions as of 10 am UTC on February 28.

While initially the Ukrainian government did not accept cryptocurrency donations and these were floating toward  Come Back Alive, an NGO supporting the country’s military, as the war with Russia kept raging on the government’s official Twitter account revealed it’s now accepting donations in the form of Bitcoin ($BTC), Ethereum ($ETH) ,and $USDT.

In addition, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine — Mykhailo Fedorov — took to Twitter to ask for support for the people of Ukraine, publishing wallet addresses for donations in crypto. One of these wallets was for USDT tokens on the TRON network, and was later confirmed by TRON founder Justin Sun to be linked to Ukraine’s crowdfunding efforts.

These donations were also supported by non-fungible token (NFT) donations sent to Ukraine’s wallets, and by a commitment by leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance to donate $10 million “to help the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.”

Donations in cryptocurrency are valuable because the prices of local fiat currencies have been fluctuating heavily ever since President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” against Ukraine that has been deemed an invasion.

Russia’s fiat currency, the ruble, saw its value plunged more than 20% against the U.S. dollar, while Ukraine’s hryvnia lost around 8% of its value since tensions between Ukraine and Russia started rising.

Elliptic and other experts have warned, however, there are scammers taking advantage of Ukraine’s fundraising efforts, posing as them in a bid to trick unsuspecting donors. On YouTube, some have posed as the Ukrainian Government to scam cryptocurrency donors.

As CryptoGlobe reported, Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchange Kuna has seen its trading volume explode after Russia’s invasion was launched. On average the exchange’s trading volume was hovering around 45 million Ukrainian hryvnias (UAH) per day. On the day Russian forces entered Ukraine, its trading volume exploded to 150 million UAH, equivalent to around $5 million.

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