Ukraine and Russia have long been at war. Both countries have been using crypto and various technologies in the war to support aid and military objectives. However, the main reasons for using crypto are different for both countries. Ukraine is mobilizing aid from various countries, while Russia is benefiting mainly from sanctions. And now reports indicate that Ukraine has received more crypto donations than Russia.
Ukrainian crypto donations
Elliptic recently released a report detailing all crypto donations collected in Russia and Ukraine. The company has leveraged developments in the cryptocurrency ecosystem to facilitate their fundraising efforts, ranging from decentralized finance (defi) to crypto prepaid cards. The use of digital currencies has been employed for a variety of purposes, including supporting humanitarian causes as well as financing sanctioned groups.
According to Elliptic’s transaction analysis, the majority of cryptocurrency assets worth $212.1 million were used to support Ukraine. Belarusian anti-government organizations closely linked to the Russian Federation received only 0.7 million dollars.
According to the report, pro-Russian groups raised nearly $4.8 million to fund the Russian military and allied militias. The authors noted that more than 10% of these donations came from illegal sources such as dark markets, sanctioned entities and vendors selling stolen credit card information.
Forklog coverage indicated that less than 2 percent of the cryptocurrency donated to Ukraine came from illegal sources. Meanwhile, pro-Russian activists stepped up their fundraising efforts and collected more Bitcoin and Ether than their Ukrainian counterparts in June. This trend has been observed since May 2022.
Ukrainian military bills are paid in crypto.
Elliptic revealed that the Ukrainian government in Kiev has sponsored or launched several cryptocurrency financing projects, keeping $83.3 million in its own wallet. Decentralized finance (defi), fiat tokens (NFTs) and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have played a major role in facilitating Ukrainian crypto fundraising, attracting over $78 million in donations.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance UK’s The Crypto Mile podcast, Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Minister Alex Bornyakov said his country has been using cryptocurrencies to buy military equipment. He said 60% of suppliers have agreed to pay in digital currencies to supply Ukraine with essential items such as helmets and bulletproof vests.
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Also read: Circle CEO suggests that stablecoin regulation should not be assigned to the US SEC.
