On Wednesday, total crypto donations through wallet addresses, charities and Ukrainian government relief efforts, followed by Coin-Crypto, reached $108 million. The top three recipients of such funds are the official Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) wallet addresses of the Ukrainian government, and a BTC donation address for Come Back Alive.
Same day, Kraken announced that it would distribute more than $10 million to customers who created an account in Ukraine for relief before March 9. Regardless of their account balance, Ukrainian Kraken customers will each receive $1,000 in BTC during the first tranche of the fund’s payout, which can be withdrawn immediately. The exchange also waived currency conversion fees for withdrawals up to $1,000. Kraken CEO Jesse Powell made the following comments about the aid package:
“Cryptocurrency remains an important humanitarian tool, especially at a time when many around the world can no longer rely on traditional banks and custodians.”
Funds will be distributed throughout the year, in part to give Ukrainian residents time to complete Kraken’s “interim” Know-Your-Customer verification process. Perhaps ironically, fees collected from Russia-based Kraken accounts will partially fund the aid package.
Kraken will hand out more than $10 million to help customers in Ukraine. Recipients of Tranche 1 will receive $1000 from #BTC, available tomorrow. The package is funded by historic revenues from Ukraine and H1 2022 revenues from Russia-based trade.https://t.co/DdkY2TsVoB
— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) March 9, 2022
Bored Ape Yacht Club, or BAYC, also joined the crypto fundraisers for Ukraine on Wednesday. After raising nearly $1 million worth of ETH from wallets holding a non-functioning BAYC token, the developers behind BAYC said it would match the contribution with its own $1 million ETH donation.
It was inspiring to see our community come together in support of Ukraine – nearly $1 million worth of ETH has been donated to @Ukraine by wallets containing a BAYC ecosystem NFT. Today we match that with our own $1 million ETH donation.
— Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) March 8, 2022
Other notable contributors include Binance’s Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund, which has raised more than $11.3 million in BTC, BNB and Binance USD since its inception. In addition, it appears that Kuna’s Crypto Fund of Ukraine during its latest update on March 3: receive over $14 million in major altcoins such as Polkadot (DOT), Tether (USDT), Candle (CNDL), USD Coin (USDC) and Dai (DAI).