After Russia declared war on Ukraine, cryptocurrency contributions flowed into a charity organization that supported the Ukrainian military. Bitcoin has already raised more than $5 million. Meanwhile, the group’s Patreon funding page has been deactivated.
Come Back Alive, one of the foremost non-governmental organizations (NGOs) offering support to Ukraine’s military, received over $5 million in bitcoin donations.
The Kyiv-based organization, which was founded in 2014, provides military equipment, training services, and medical supplies to Ukrainian soldiers.
After Russia started a military strike on Ukraine on Thursday, donations to the BTC address mentioned on the organization’s website skyrocketed. The wallet address has received 131.78144015 BTC approximately so far.
From February 24 to late February 25, as many as 2,207 donations totalling 126.04304091 BTC were received, according to a review of all donations to the address. The donations collected since February 24 are worth more than $5 million, depending on the current bitcoin price of $39,676.51, as reported by Bitcoin.com Markets.
On February 23, the wallet only received 1.60976481 BTC (76 donations), whereas, on February 22, it only received 0.42272864 BTC (25 donations).
Tom Robinson, the chief scientist and co-founder of the blockchain analytics platform Elliptic tweeted on Thursday: Donations to the Ukrainian armed forces in cryptocurrency are rising.
CNBC reported him as saying, “Cryptocurrency is increasingly being used to crowdfund war, with the implicit agreement of governments.”
Elliptic also looked into the donations that Come Back Alive had received. According to the business, the NGO got over $675,000 in bitcoin on February 24 and collected more than $3.4 million by 9:30 a.m. on February 25. “This brings the amount the group has raised in only 24 hours to nearly $4 million,” the business noted, noting that a single contributor gave over $3 million (80 BTC).
In 2018, the group Comes Back Alive began taking bitcoin donations. According to Elliptic, BTC contributions have been rising recently, with approximately $200K collected in the second half of 2021. The platform issued a study earlier this month revealing that donations of digital assets to Ukrainian NGOs and volunteer groups increased by 900 per cent last year. The fundraising page for Come Back Alive has been removed from Patreon.
Meanwhile, the site has taken down Come Back Alive’s Patreon fundraising page.
Come Back Alive Director Taras Chmut told CNBC in an interview that the group had been getting tiny sums from its Patreon website for several months before earning over $300,000 when Russia invaded Ukraine.
When he withdrew the funds to pay for equipment, he discovered that his organization’s Patreon page had been taken down. He contacted the platform, which stated that it was investigating the matter.
A spokesman for Patreon told CNBC:
Regardless of the reason, Patreon does not accept any campaigns that include violence or the purchase of military weaponry.
“We have individuals dying because they don’t have body armor,” Chmut said, adding that Ukraine is a developing nation and that Come Back Alive has aided soldiers in getting the equipment they require.
