Binance to donate $10M to Ukraine

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Binance, the world’s leading crypto and blockchain infrastructure provider, has committed $10 million to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

"The donation will be split between major intergovernmental organizations and nonprofit organizations already on the ground," according to a statement.

It has also launched a crypto-first crowdfunding site, called Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund to enable people to donate crypto to help provide emergency relief to refugees and children and to support logistics on the ground such as food, fuel and supplies for refugees.

"A donation of 16,042 BNB, with the equivalent value of $6 million, has already been made by Binance," it noted.

"Watching this conflict escalate over the past four days has shocked our community to its core. We are proud to have been able to quickly rally our network to provide relief and support on the ground to those in need," said Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government's official Twitter account provided two crypto money accounts Thursday -- one for solely receiving Bitcoin and the other for taking Ethereum and Tether.

"The addresses mentioned in the tweets have already received $10.2 million across 12,799 transactions," according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.

Elliptic noted that total crypto donations to the Ukrainian government and NGOs supporting the military now stand at $16.7 million.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies seem certain to attract even great discussion in the future, with their latest use in the Russia-Ukraine conflict opening a new page in such debate.