‘Crypto for Good’: Ukrainian Official Shares Photo of New Military Equipment

Ukraine’s vice prime minister and minister of digital information, Mykhailo Fedorov, on Sunday shared a photo of what the war-torn nation is spending crypto donations on: 200 sets of ballistic plates for bulletproof vests.

“The better equipped soldiers,” wrote Fedorov, “the sooner day of Ukrainian victory.”

Ukraine began accepting donations in cryptocurrencies almost immediately after Russia invaded in late February. Tens of millions of dollars quickly flooded in—from individuals, crypto grants, NFT sales, and DAOs.

It’s not clear precisely how much total crypto has been donated to the war effort. Elliptic stopped counting at $63.8 million—the blockchain analytics firm instead added a link to Ukraine’s official site—but according to a recent Financial Times report, it’s more than $100 million.

Although concerns were raised that Russia could similarly raise funds and/or dodge sanctions with crypto, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said earlier this month that “we haven’t seen significant evasion through crypto so far.”

Perhaps just to be safe, the European Union a few days later introduced a ban on “providing high-value crypto-asset services to Russia.”