Ukraine Tweeted Its Crypto Wallet, And Got $4 Million In Donations To Help Fight Russia

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Ukraine Tweeted Its Crypto Wallet, And Got $4 Million In Donations To Help Fight Russia

A source who confirmed the government’s fundraiser believed the funds would go to “exterminate as many Russian occupants as possible.”

by Katie Notopoulos

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted 5 hours ago

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{ "id": 128828300 } Sergey Bobok / AFP via Getty Images { "id": 128828202 }

On Saturday, just days after Russia invaded Ukraine, the country’s official Twitter account tweeted out a call for donations through bitcoin, ethereum, and the stablecoin tether.

The vice prime minister of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, confirmed on his Twitter account that the call for donations was real, and asked people to “Stand with Ukraine.”

As of publication, these wallets have received over $4 million in cryptocurrency.

{ "id": "1497594592438497282", "params": { "conversation": "none" } } Ukraine / Україна @Ukraine

Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT. BTC - 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P ETH and USDT (ERC-20) - 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14

03:29 PM - 26 Feb 2022 Reply Retweet Favorite Twitter: @Ukraine { "id": 128828202 }

Yarema Dukh, a communications strategist who helped set up the official Ukraine Twitter account in 2016, confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the tweet and wallet were a legitimate government plan. He said he believed the crypto funds would go to “exterminate as many Russian occupants as possible,” but was not sure of exact government spending plans.

Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the early morning hours on Thursday. Since then, Russian troops have entered Kyiv, putting its democratically elected government at risk.

Initially, some people, including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, were concerned that the tweet may have been from scammers who had hacked the account. After hearing from the vice prime minister, Buterin tweeted that he had received confirmation, but encouraged people to always be cautious when sending donations in cryptocurrency.

So far, according to the ledger, the largest donation of 100ETH (approximately $278,000) has come from Deepak Thapliyal, the CEO of Chain.com, a blockchain technology company. “When I realized the Ukrainian government had requested donations in the form of crypto, I felt compelled to do my part to help,” Thapiyal told BuzzFeed News. “Crypto donations are borderless and near instant, so I am hoping that the government there can tap into it as soon as possible to help the people in need.”

Ukrainian NGOs and volunteer groups have a history of accepting bitcoin. The volunteer group Come Back Alive, which provides supplies to the Ukrainian military, has asked for donations in crypto since 2018, according to the blockchain analytics company Elliptic. In a report, Elliptic said that the government and NGOs have received $11 million in crypto donations since the invasion began on Thursday.

The nation is particularly poised to handle crypto donations. This fall, it passed a law to legalize and regulate bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, making it one of a handful of countries to have embraced crypto. Ukraine’s low taxes and large pool of tech talent have made it a crypto hub.

Feb. 26, 2022, at 23:08 PM

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Yarema Dukh's surname.

UPDATE Feb. 26, 2022, at 22:05 PM

Elliptic updated its analysis to show $11 million USD in crypto donations to NGOs.

{ "id": 128828202 }

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  Katie Notopoulos is a senior technology reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. Contact this reporter at [email protected].

  Contact Katie Notopoulos at [email protected].

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