Ukrainian Government Receives Nearly $10M in Crypto Donations After Russian Invasion
The Ethereum wallet listed by the government has received almost $10 million in crypto so far.
Feb 26, 2022 at 4:58 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/downloads.coindesk.com/arc/failsafe/placeholders/16x9.png)
The Ukrainian government is seeking donations in cryptocurrency as the country seeks to repel the invasion by Russia.
The Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets listed by the government on Twitter have already received around $9.4 million worth of crypto in total. The Ethereum wallet has received just over $5.2 million in donations as of 22:39 UTC. The Bitcoin wallet has received $4.2 million as of the same time, with some of the bitcoin having already been sent out.
The official Twitter accounts of the Ukrainian government and Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov provided wallet addresses for donations of bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and the stablecoin tether (USDT).
Funds were initially trickling into the listed addresses over fears the Ukrainian government account had been hacked. While Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed doubt as to the veracity of the appeals, the tweets came from verified accounts. (Buterin later said the accounts were "legit" and he'd be deleting his warning.)
Representatives for the Ukrainian government weren't immediately available for comment and the country's official website appeared to be down.
When this article was first published, the wallets contained about $435,000 in crypto but just over an hour later, the Bitcoin wallet contained around $500,000 or 13 BTC, while the Ethereum wallet had around $3.6 million or 1,090 ETH in total. That may not be the total donated, however, as there are indications that some bitcoin has already been removed from the respective wallet.
This is not the first instance of using cryptocurrencies to aid Ukrainians in their battle against the Russian invasion. A digital wallet raising funds to support the Ukrainian army has received almost $6 million in bitcoin.
UPDATE (Feb. 28, 04:29 UTC): Updates the amount of total bitcoin and ethereum donations received to $9.4 million.
UPDATE (Feb. 26, 18:29 UTC): Updates the amount of total bitcoin and ethereum donations received to $3.6 million.
UPDATE (Feb. 26, 20:22 UTC): Second update on the amount of crypto donated.
UPDATE (Feb. 26, 22:44 UTC): Updates amount of crypto donated in headline and body of story.
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