Crypto Helps Ukraine Defend Itself Against Russia's Invasion, Here’s How You Can Contribute
Source: AdobeStock / Marko
Cryptoassets continue to prove their case in Ukraine, as well over USD 100m in crypto was raised during the first five weeks of the Russian invasion.
Per a report by blockchain research firm TRM which analyzed over 50 crypto donation campaigns, official government entities have received over USD 50m of donations. Other popular non-governmental organization (NGO) campaigns have netted another USD 50m in donations.
Bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) were the most popular cryptoassets and together facilitated over 85% of all transactions. Alternative networks like Tron (TRX), BNB, and Litecoin (LTC) have stayed distantly behind.
Source: TRMLabs.com
According to Alex Bornyakov, The Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, cryptoassets have been “extremely useful” in the facilitation of funds in the country and have already purchased invaluable equipment for the Ukrainian Army.
In the recent episode of the Wolf of All Streets show, Bornyakov elaborated that cryptoassets were especially beneficial during the first days of the war when there was a lot of chaos in the country. “If you want to send a wire, and wire is going to get to your supplier in three days, you honestly don’t have three days, and maybe in three days you’re not going to live in this country anymore,” he said. In these circumstances, crypto is much faster, he added.
1. Aid For Ukraine
Aid For Ukraine is the official crypto fundraising initiative by the Ukrainian government. Powered by the country’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Kuna and FTX exchanges, as well as Everstake staking service platform, the page comes with a simple user interface that lets you donate in 14 crypto assets as seen in the image below.
Source: Aid For Ukraine
However, these are not all cryptoasets that can be donated directly to the Ukrainian government. When it comes to the Ethereum address provided on the site, it can also be used for sending all other Ethereum tokens, including, but not limited to USD Coin (USDC), TerraUSD (UST), Dai (DAI), Chainlink (LINK), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Uniswap (UNI), and hundreds of others.
The same applies to the tokens of other non-Ethereum platforms, too. You can send tokens issued on Solana (SOL), Polkadot (DOT), Cardano (ADA), Tron, Algorand (ALGO), ICON (ICX), and Terra (LUNA) to the corresponding network addresses, although it might be more convenient if you swap them to the native network's crypto first. Liquidating a wide variety of tokens can prove time-consuming, expensive, and troublesome.
In order to make the process of donating tokens more convenient, decentralized exchange Uniswap has created a special donation interface that swaps any Ethereum ERC-20 token for ETH and sends it directly to the Ukrainian government address in a single transaction. You can find it at donate.uniswap.org.
Source: donate.uniswap.org
Even though it is not mentioned on the donations website directly, the same network addresses can also be used to donate non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In fact, the ministry’s Ethereum address has already received 673 NFTs, including a rare CryptoPunk #5364 which is worth approximately USD 200,000.
CryptoPunk #5364
Although not on the official page, the same Ethereum address, yet again, is also used to receive donations on other Ethereum-based fork networks that utilize the same ETH address system. These include donations via:
- BNB (ex Binance Smart Chain) and BNB-based tokens, including NFTs;
- Polygon (ex Matic Network) and MATIC-based tokens, including NFTs;
- Optimistic Ethereum and its tokens;
- Arbitrum and its tokens;
- Avalanche, AVAX-based tokens, and NFTs;
- Fantom, FTM-based tokens, and NFTs;
- Cronos (ex-Crypto.com Chain), CRO-based tokens, and NFTs;
- Huobi Token (HT), HT-based tokens, and NFTs.
Some of these projects and their tokens operate on multiple networks and across different address systems, so be sure that your assets are on the same ETH-compatible network - otherwise, your assets might get lost. Be sure to use dedicated network bridges if you have to.
At pixel time, Aid For Ukraine has raised USD 71,8 million out of the USD 200 million goal.
If crypto is not a viable option, the government also accepts USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, and CAD donations to the National Bank of Ukraine.