Cryptocurrency experts say at least $13.7 million has so far been sent to the Ukrainian war effort through anonymous bitcoin donations.
Researchers at Elliptic, a blockchain analytics company, say the Ukrainian government, NGOs and volunteer groups were able to raise this money by asking for donations to their bitcoin wallet addresses.
More than 4,000 donations have been made so far. An unknown donor even donated US$ 3 million (R$ 15 million) in bitcoins to an NGO. The average donation is US$ 95 (almost R$ 500).
On Saturday afternoon (26), the official Twitter account of the government of Ukraine posted a message: “Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. In bitcoin, ethereum and USDT.”
The government published addresses for two cryptocurrency wallets that collected $5.4 million worth of bitcoin, Ether and other coins in eight hours.
The Ukrainian Digital Ministry says the request for donations is to “help Ukraine’s armed forces”, but did not detail how the money would be spent.
Elliptic creator Tom Robinson told the BBC: “While some crowdfunding and payments companies refuse to allow donations to be made to groups supporting the Ukrainian military, cryptocurrencies have emerged as a powerful alternative.”
On Friday, the fundraising platform Patreon announced that it had suspended the donations page for “Come Back Alive”, a Ukrainian NGO that has been raising money for Ukrainian forces in conflict zones since 2014.
Patreon said the page violates company policies.
“We do not allow Patreon to be used to fund weapons or military activities,” the company said in a statement.
Cryptocurrency fundraising is becoming an increasingly prominent part of modern conflicts across the world.
But scammers also seem to be taking advantage of the current situation in Ukraine, deceiving less cautious users.
Elliptic says at least one social media post was found mimicking a legitimate tweet from an NGO, but with the author changing the bitcoin address.
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