Ukraine Gets $34 Million in Cryptocurrency Donations

Ukraine issued a plea for contributions on Twitter last week

NBC Universal, Inc. We don’t know what’s going on in Vladimir Putin’s head as Russia invades Ukraine, says Anatol Lieven, an author and senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

A firm that tracks cryptocurrency transactions says $33.8 million in the digital currency has been donated to Ukraine’s government and non-governmental organizations there since the start of Russia’s invasion, nearly a third of it on Tuesday.

Chief Scientist Tom Robinson of Elliptic said most donations to date have been in bitcoin and ether. Some people are sending non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, to the Ukrainian government’s ethereum account.

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Ukraine issued a plea for contributions on Twitter last week. To date, it has received 30,000 donations, including $5.8 million from Gavin Wood, the British programmer who co-founded ethereum. There have been several other donations of more than $1 million.

Elliptic also warned of scammers tricking unsuspecting cryptocurrency holders wanting to donate to Ukrainian causes.

Elliptic is among firms that help law enforcement track cryptocurrency to combat money laundering.

This is a live update. Click here for complete coverage of the crisis in Ukraine.

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