According to a fresh report, non-government and volunteer organizations collecting funds to support Ukrainian soldiers have begun accepting bitcoin donations. The findings were released amid rising tensions with Russia, which has been accused of amassing soldiers on Ukraine’s border.
Ukrainian organizations use cryptocurrency to crowdfund their defense efforts
According to a report by blockchain analytics startup Elliptic, Ukrainian NGOs and volunteer groups have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrencies. According to the company’s researchers, donations made in digital assets grew by 900 percent last year.
The majority of these organizations arose in the aftermath of the Maidan revolution in 2014 when they aided demonstrators. They have been providing volunteers, weapons, and supplies to Ukraine’s military effort against pro-Russian militants in the eastern Donbas region since Russia’s takeover of Crimea.
The organizations have received millions of dollars in fiat money through bank wires and payment applications in recent years. Meanwhile, the authors point out that bitcoin has become an alternative financing channel since it allows donors to bypass constraints imposed by the existing financial system.
Elliptic has discovered that multiple crypto wallets used by non-government organizations and volunteer groups have received a total of $570,000 in digital currency. The majority of the monies were moved throughout the last year.
Come Back Alive, which provides military equipment, medical products, and training to the Ukrainian army, is one of the organizations that take cryptocurrency. In 2018, it included a cryptocurrency option. During the second half of 2021, the charity got about $200,000 in digital money.
Only crypto donations are accepted by the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance, whose members have been engaged in cyberattacks on Russian targets since 2016, including targeting Russia’s defense ministry. It has received about $100,000 in BTC, LTC, ETH, and numerous stablecoins in the last year.
Cyber Partisans, based in Belarus, is another hacktivist group that only accepts bitcoin. It claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on the systems of the Belarusian railways and demanded that Russian forces leave the country. It raised $84,000 in BTC in the last six months, according to the study.
Myrotvorets Center is a non-governmental organization based in Kiev that disseminates information about Russian mercenaries and journalists. It has amassed at least $268,000 in BTC since allowing crypto donations after deleting its Paypal account.
While these organizations are frequently sponsored by individual contributors, others are thought to have close ties to the Kyiv administration. As a result, Ukraine has joined the ranks of other countries that have used cryptocurrencies to raise funding, according to Elliptic.
Iran, which has been employing bitcoin mining to monetize its energy reserves and crypto payments to circumvent global sanctions, is mentioned in the report, as is North Korea, which is accused of stealing digital coins to fund its nuclear programs.
According to the article, Russia has been using cryptocurrency for fundraising from the start of the conflict. A series of internet fundraising initiatives for pro-Russian rebels in Eastern Ukraine accepted both cryptocurrency and fiat currencies. Between 2014 and 2016, one of them, organized under the banner “Save the Donbass,” received at least 68 bitcoin donations.
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