The Ukrainian government has announced that it is now accepting cryptocurrency donations in Polkadot, in addition to the donations it has already received in Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT.
“The people of Ukraine are grateful for the support and donations from the global crypto community as we protect our freedom. We are now accepting Polkadot donations too,” the government’s official Twitter account announced earlier today.
The tweet added that more cryptocurrencies will be added soon.
On February 27, Polkadot founder Gavin Wood replied to the Ukrainian government’s initial plea for donations saying he would donate $5 million should the Ukrainian government start accepting Polkadot.
At the time, Wood faced criticism for not simply donating funds in cryptocurrencies the government was accepting at the time.
Crypto donations to Ukraine
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies have been donated to the Ukrainian government and NGOs supporting the defense of the country.
Per figures from blockchain analytics platform Elliptic, Ukraine’s crypto crowdfunding effort passed $20 million yesterday.
“The Ukrainian government, and NGOs providing support to the military, have raised $20 million through thousands of cryptocurrency donations since the start of the donation,” Elliptic said in a blog post.
So far, these donations have comprised mostly Bitcoin and Ethereum sent to the government’s BTC and ETH addresses, which have received $8 million in Bitcoin and $7 million in Ethereum respectively.
But other sources of crypto income have been established, too.
UkraineDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) created to raise funds for Ukraine, was created earlier this week by Nadya Tolokonnikova, a founding member of the “conceptual protest art group” Pussy Riot, alongside Trippy Labs and members of PleasrDAO.
Another fundraiser called Support Ukrainian Sovereignty claims to have raised over $500,000 to date, while NGO Come Back Alive—which was suspended by crowdfunding platform Patreon for “funding military activity”—has raised “several million dollars” in crypto, per Elliptic.
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