Russia’s military move into Ukraine has gotten a lot of attention from people who use cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies first fell after the invasion news broke.
The prices of cryptocurrencies have gone back up after dropping at first because of the harsh economic sanctions the U.S. put in place after Russia invaded Ukraine. The crypto community isn’t all pessimists, either; there are some optimistic voices among the gloom.
Vitalik Buterin is a Russian citizen and one of Ethereum‘s co-founders. He has been very vocal in his criticism of Russia’s invasion, saying that the country should not have given up hope of a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, decided to help Ukrainian merchants out financially. Bankman-Fried sent the following tweet to all Ukrainians who use the FTX cryptocurrency platform: “We just paid $25 to each Ukrainian on FTX do what you need to do.”
The cryptocurrency community responded to a Twitter appeal for donations to the military by urging the Ministry of Defense to build a cryptocurrency wallet, although this has not yet happened yet due to regulations in the country.
A growing number of people are turning to Bitcoin as a way to donate money to the Ukrainian military as the crisis with Russia drags on. Elliptic, a company that analyzes blockchain data, reports that donors have sent Come Back Alive more than $400,000 in Bitcoin. The local army benefits from the NGO’s provision of military gear, as well as medical and food supplies. In addition, a donor of unknown identity recently sent 80 BTC, or more than $3 million at today’s exchange rates, to the nonprofit that provides aid to the Ukrainian armed forces.
About one hundred thousand dollars worth of Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and a variety of stablecoins were donated to the Cyber Alliance during the course of the past year.
The Ukrainian rock band Pussy Riot, who are no strangers to political protest, have joined up with Trippy Labs and PleasrDAO to launch UkraineDAO. To raise money to help war-torn Ukrainians, the UkraineDAO will be selling Ethereum NFTs. The NFT drop will consist of ten thousand Ukrainian flag NFTs. The proceeds of this coin will be split between the non-profits Proliska and the Return Alive Foundation.
