In over a year, Ukraine received around $70 million in crypto donations, which were used to purchase armor, medication, military hardware, and other items.
A year ago, in February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Since then, various people, entities, companies, organizations, and the crypto community has been showing support for the country by sending crypto donations.
According to the data shared by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis on February 24th, since February 2022, Ukraine has received around $70 million in crypto donations.
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Chainalysis data revealed that various entities sent $28.9 million worth of Ether (ETH), $22.8 million in Bitcoin (BTC), and $11.6 million in Tether (USDT) to Ukraine. Other donations were made in USD Coin (USDC), Dai (DAI), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). For example, during the UkraineDAO auction, which sold Ukranian flag NFTs, the country collected around $6.1 million in donations.
When talking about the crypto donations with Yahoo Finance, Ukrainian deputy digital minister Alex Bornyakov said:
If we used the traditional financial system it was going to take days <...> We were able to secure the purchase of vital items in no time at all via crypto, and what is amazing is that around 60% of suppliers were able to accept crypto, I didn’t expect this.
It is believed that donations have also helped to increase crypto adoption in Ukraine. Chainalysis found that crypto adoption in Ukraine was the third-highest globally, behind the Philippines and Vietnam.
In a tweet in August 2022, Mykhailo Fedorov, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and the Minister of Digital Transformation, said the crypto donations were used to fund personnel, purchase armor, military hardware, medication, and various vehicles.
Chainanlysis also revealed that crypto donations were coming not only to Ukraine but also to pro-Russia organizations. It stated that around 100 pro-Russian organizations had received nearly $5.4 million.
Chainalysis also found that there was a rise in ransomware attacks. According to the company's 2023 Crypto Crime Report, in 2022, $456.8 million went to Russia-related ransomware attackers.
In one instance, Chainalysis identified a Russian ransomware group called Conti that announced its support for the Russian government after the invasion. In 2022, Conti obtained nearly $66 million from ransomware victims.
