Ukraine turns to crypto for military funding

As the war in Ukraine continues, the government and private entities set up various crypto donation pages to help fund the army and support affected civilians.

Over $100 million have already been raised in crypto support for the country. Michael Chobanian’s “Crypto Fund for Ukraine” accounts for 60% of it, according to Al Jazeera, with the majority of donations coming in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the stablecoin Tether. Initially created as two separate funds for the army and for humanitarian causes, the funds have since been merged into one fully supporting the military.

At the same time, Ukraine DAO, a decentralized organization founded by a Russian artist Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who was a part of the group Pussy Riot, and members of Trippy Labs and PleasrDAO, has to date gathered $7 million through crypto donations and auctioning NFTs to support Ukrainian civilians and military.

“Come Back Alive will receive 100% of (the) funds to distribute food, medical supplies, and other necessary services to those in need. It was selected due to its transparent and effective local operations. We don’t have time for traditional means of fundraising, and crypto has already proven to be the most efficient tool to offer immediate help,” a representative of Trippy Labs told Forkast.

Another initiative launched by Pray4Ukraine and Back and Alive has invited over 10,000 crypto artists to create NFTs to help the Ukrainian army and war victims. They have already gathered a collection of 9930 NFTs created by local artists ready for minting.

Earlier in March, the government announced the launch of an official website in collaboration with the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and Everstake – a Ukraine-based web3 company, – as well as other crypto supporters for accepting crypto donations to “fund Ukrainians on the ground.” They invite NFT artists, blockchain platforms, crypto businesses, and others to partner with Aid For Ukraine.

The donation page set up by the Ministry of Digital Information has raised over $60 million. According to deputy minister of digital transformation, Alex Bornyakov, all currently received money went to purchase “night vision goggles, optics, helmets, bulletproof vests” rather than weapons, according to the Guardian. From the 1st of March, collected funds were used in the following way:

The government is also simultaneously working on creating the NFT collection that would be “like a museum of the Russian-Ukrainian war.”