Alex Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, said that Ukraine has spent $15 million of its cryptocurrency donations on military equipment.
Founded two years ago to upgrade the information technology industry and provide high-speed Internet access, the Digital Transformation Department of Ukraine has found a supplier of bulletproof vests, food, bandages and equipment. suffered night vision from the US and Europe just two days after the Russian attack. While some vendors accept cryptocurrencies, others only accept EUR or USD, forcing some amount of crypto to be converted to fiat.
Post on Ukraine’s official Twitter page calling for crypto donations
In an interview with Bloomberg, Bornyakov said that the Ukrainian government expects donations from the cryptocurrency, which has now reached $56.8 million, to double in the next few days. Most of the donations come from Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), with a smaller amount coming from stablecoins like Tether (USDT), Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL) and even both NFTs.
The deputy minister said that most of the donations came from other individuals, but there were exceptions from some large organisations. One of them is Aid for Ukraine, a fund that aims to convert cryptocurrencies into USD for spending in Ukraine, with the backing of US-based exchange FTX. The fund’s cryptocurrency will be converted into USD to be deposited in the central bank of Ukraine.
The fund was created by Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, and Sergey Vasylchuk, CEO of crypto holding company Everstake. Vasylchuk previously worked with the Ukrainian government to develop a Central Bank digital currency.