BTC, ETH, NFTs: How Have They Helped Ukraine To Resist Russian Invasion?

The crypto community is helping Ukraine during the war on all fronts. These were both colossal donations from famous people and small replenishments from ordinary citizens. The crypto community rallied together in the fight for justice.

This article one more time proves that Bitcoin and the whole crypto community is a power capable of significantly changing the situation.

How have BTC, ETH, and NFTs helped Ukraine in difficult times?

Many representatives of the crypto-community immediately responded to the need to contribute to help Ukraine in the fight against the occupiers by transferring cryptocurrency to the wallets of verified charitable foundations. Charity in digital assets is very beneficial for Ukraine, as time is life for Ukrainians, and blockchain transactions can be completed in minutes, which is not the case with banking systems.

Also, this charity format encourages senders to donate due to its ease and the absence of third parties who could ask the sender about the source of BTC origin.

Government Funds

At the request of the Ukrainian government, $63.8 million was raised in the first days of the full-scale invasion, including a $5.77 million donation from Polkadot founder Gavin Wood and NFT CryptoPunk for over $200,000.

The tweet was later updated, and the Polkadot address was added to the comments. At the time of writing, the donations are as follows:

• Ethereum address has received over 11,000 ETH, and CryptoPunk NFT ~ $200k.

• Bitcoin address has received over 650 BTC.

• Polkadot address received over 700 DOT.

  
  

Another $1.86M came from the proceeds of the sale of NFTs created by Julian Assange and digital artist Pak.

United24

On the initiative of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, the official fundraising platform of Ukraine UNITED24 was established on May 5, 2022. Its peculiarity is that there are five separate NBU accounts to which those wishing to donate money can:

• Defense
• Humanitarian Demining
• Medical Aid
• Rebuild Ukraine
• Education and Science

The collected donations go to 5 different ministries respectively:

• Ministry of Defence
• Ministry of Healthcare
• Ministry for Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure Development
• Ministry of Economy
• Ministry of Education and Science

United24 accepts donations in fiat money and crypto. As of June 2024, over $650,000,000 in donations were sent to Unitaed24. In May 2022, one week after the project launch, around $362,000 was received in cryptocurrency via payment company Whitepay.

On September 10, 2022, United24 received the largest donation in crypto: $500,000 donor distributed equally between Defense, Humanitarian Demining, and Medical Aid. The contribution was made anonymously.

United24 cooperates with companies that donate income generated by crypto or NFT. For example, the UACatsDivision team and INCRYPTED created the world's first national NFT collection. Its goal is to raise $1,000,000 for a fleet of marine drones. NFT sales started on February 22, 2023.

Aid For Ukraine

The Aid For Ukraine fund was created in March with the help of cryptocurrency exchange FTX (now moved to Kuna) and staking provider Everstake. In three months, cryptocurrency donations amounted to ~ $100,000,000.

Over $64,000,000 was spent in total. 8,558 armor vests, 4,317 helmets, 79,881 military clothing and accessories, 5,338 tactical backpacks, 5,082 digital rifle scopes, 1,450 thermal imagers, and 220 monoculars were purchased.

Major direct aid funds

Of course, there are many more direct aid funds in Ukraine than on my list. Every region has humanitarian hubs that help the army and the population. They also accept donations in cryptocurrency, but it is impossible to calculate the amounts, as you need to contact each such fund for reporting.

Come Back Alive Foundation

The Come Back Alive Foundation started accepting cryptocurrency as donations back in 2018. On February 26, 2022, the foundation published addresses and details for donations. A report on the funds received can be found on their website.

The majority of cryptocurrency donations for the Come Back Alive Foundation were in BTC, ETH, and USDT. Donations in crypto in February-March 2022 equated to 7-digit amounts. On February 25, the fund received an anonymous donation of 80 BTC.

Come Back Alive Foundation participated in the NFT auction with the help of UkraineDAO.

UkraineDAO is an organization that raises funds for crypto-assets to support the Ukrainian military outside of Ukraine. An image of the Ukrainian flag was sold for $6.5 million in ETH—the 10th most expensive NFT ever sold. The proceeds were donated to the Come Back Alive Foundation. Total crypto donations to UkraineDAO amounted to 2468.085656 ETH.

Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation

TV host Serhiy Prytula has been helping the military in Ukraine since the first days of the war. First, he closed Kyiv's Territorial Defense Forces (TrD Forces) needs. Then, he switched to larger-scale tasks. The showman appealed to the crypto community to donate crypto so that Ukraine could close the current army needs. Overall, the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation has received significant crypto donations. It received over 1000 ETH and 20 BTC.

Palianytsia Foundation

The Palianytsia Charitable Foundation was established by entrepreneurs and volunteers from Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, they have focused their efforts on helping people who arrived in Lviv: finding accommodation, adapting to new conditions, providing food, hygiene products, medicines, and the like. They also provide humanitarian, psychological, and legal assistance to Ukrainian refugees traveling to western regions of Ukraine and abroad.

The Foundation has also launched cryptocurrency fundraising to purchase equipment, machinery, fuel, helmets, body armor, portable chargers, memory cards, laptops, and other necessary items for the AFU and transport them to Ukraine. Donations can also be made in fiat currency.

Considering all donations, the fund has raised a total of $4.7 million. In cryptocurrency, the fund has raised around 1 BTC and 150 ETH.

How NFT helps Ukraine

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, several NFT auctions have been realized, and the proceeds have been used to help Ukraine.

UaCatsDivision

This is a charity NFT collection that aims to raise $1,000,000 for a fleet of marine drones. It involves the Ministry of Defense, UNITED24 platform, and Encrypted crypto-media. The project will allow the Ministry of Defense to purchase four combat drones, which Ukrainian heroes really need now.

In total, the collection consists of 10,000 art tokens in the style of AFU cats. Each NFT is unique. An art token can be resold or kept as a memory of your participation in such a useful cause. But the main task is still donation. The team also promises token holders participation in the UACatsDivision VIP club, exclusive merch, and other privileges.

UaCatsDivision collection in numbers:

• 10,000 digital NFT cats are counted in the collection.
• $1,000,000 is planned to be collected and donated to UNITED24 for a fleet of marine drones.
• $55,000 was raised within the first 10 minutes of the collection sale.
• $130,000 was collected in less than 3 hours of the sale.
• $180,000 was raised in less than 24 hours.
• 99 SEALs worth $10.5k - the maximum one-time purchase within the first 24 hours.

It is not too late to take part in the collection!

Berehynia by DOUBLE TOP

The NFT collection Berehynia by DOUBLE TOP consisted of 2,400 NFTs. During the 11 days of the auction (March 6-16, 2022), 120 ETH was raised, which was sent to the Come Back Alive Foundation. According to DOUBLE TOP co-founders Alexander Gnatenko and Anton Dzyuba, the company also makes many crypto donations without being announced in the media.

RELI3F UKR

According to OpenSea, RELI3F UKR has raised about 2 million dollars in crypto. The first collection in support of Ukraine sold out in 30 seconds and brought in $1 million in aid for Ukrainians.

Crypto community

Crypto exchanges, large crypto investors, and communities of traders were not left out. They brought Ukraine many crypto donations; let's consider the largest ones.

Binance

In the early days of the full-scale invasion, Binance Charity created a crowd-funded Emergency Relief Fund to provide immediate support and safe haven for refugees. Binance's $10 million donation is one of the largest donations made by a private company for Ukraine.

WhiteBIT

Since June 3, 2022, the Ukrainian exchange WhiteBIT has partnered with the Serhiy Prytula Foundation. Between August and December 2022, 1,729 donations have been made. As of December 22nd, the total amount of donations in cryptocurrency amounted to more than $500,000.

The WhiteBIT crypto exchange is also known for buying back the crystal microphone - the Eurovision 2022 award from the band Kalush. The $900,000 raised was sent to the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation to purchase drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

WhiteBIT also participates in other charity projects. Thus, at the RM Sotheby's auction, the CEO of the company bought Freddie Mercury's Rolls-Royce for over $270,000. They were used to build a medical center for Ukrainians affected by military aggression.

Vitalik Buterin

Vitalik Buterin did not stay aside; he transferred 1,500 ETH to support Ukraine. The recipients of the donation were the Aid For Ukraine Foundation and the Unchain Ukrainian Foundation.

Conclusion

It is quite difficult to calculate the total amount of cryptocurrency donations in favor of Ukraine. Only the official state funds received more than $200 million. If we add here the funds of Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation and Come Back Alive Foundation, the amount will be about $500 million, and possibly more.

At the beginning of the war, the volume of cryptocurrency donations broke all imaginable records. Now, to attract donations from the crypto community, Ukrainians organize various events, including NFT auctions.

It is obvious that the worldwide crypto industry, led by Bitcoin, is developing and will only flourish. The crypto community's contribution to helping the AFU and Ukrainians affected by military aggression cannot be underestimated. Approximately 5% of the total amount of aid to Ukraine was donated by cryptocurrency and NFT.