Ukraine partners with FTX and Everstake for crypto fundraising website
Ukraine has launched a crypto donations website to raise funds for its ongoing defense against Russia with the help of crypto exchange FTX.
The initiative, dubbed Aid for Ukraine, is a collaboration between FTX, staking service Everstake and Ukraine. FTX converts the crypto donations to fiat and sends them to the fundraising account of the National Bank of Ukraine, according to the site.
"This marks the first-ever instance of a cryptocurrency exchange directly cooperating with a public financial entity to provide a conduit for crypto donations," said the site.
Donations will be used to support humanitarian aid programs and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"Help Ukraine with crypto, don't leave us alone with the enemy," reads the site. The notice is followed by options to donate in bitcoin, ether, tether, polkadot, solana, dogecoin, monero, icon and neo N3. Though the site is geared towards crypto donations, it also has an option to donate in fiat.
Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov posted the site in his Telegram channel today.
"We are raising funds for cyber defense, information counteraction to Russian propaganda and technical assistance to the Armed Forces," he said in a translated message to the channel.
The site touts over $48 million raised thus far from Ukraine's collective efforts. It sets a goal of $200,000,000. However, it's difficult to put a definitive marker on how much Ukraine has raised in crypto thus far given price swings and the many funding streams.
Still, those donations have already turned into tangible resources. Alex Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine on IT industry development, tweeted a list of supplies that have been bought since March 1, including 5,550 bulletproof vests, 410,000 packed lunches and 500 helmets. Bornyakov pointed to the forthcoming non-fungible token collection as the next boost to the fundraising process in a statement.