Crypto and the War in Ukraine
Cryptocurrency has taken an increasing role in the war between the Ukraine and Russia as both sides utilize the new technology for a variety of uses.
Donations from around the world have been sent to the Ukrainian government in the form of cryptocurrency, where at least $20 million has been sent to government and non-government organizations based in the nation. The Ukrainian government has set up an official Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT wallet address that anyone can willingly send to.
Donations are being distributed from these government digital wallets, which are set up by Ukrainian crypto exchange Kuna. Kuna founder Michael Chobanian stated in an interview that “we are evacuating people so we are sending money to buy petrol, to buy food and water for the people who are evacuating. We are sending some money to the local military personal who can buy some supplies locally. The government is also buying drones, heat vision goggles, and petrol.”
The speed at which the global community can provide funding and potential financial relief to the devastated nation has only highlighted one of the main benefits of cryptocurrency - its increased speed and efficiency when sending and receiving funds. Chobanian stated that crypto is proving to be more efficient than traditional payment methods, where “it’s really difficult to send money using traditional methods. It takes alot of time. Secondly, there is alot of bureaucracy and so on. Here, we are really fast. We receive money and we spend it almost immediately.”
On the other side of the conflict, Russian citizens may be turning to cryptocurrency as a means of protecting their assets from devaluation due to a falling Russian ruble and greater economic sanctions from the international community. According to French crypto analytics provider Kaiko, exchange trading volume between the Russian ruble and bitcoin increased to 9 month highs giving further credence to the idea that Russians are doing whatever they can to preserve their wealth from the depreciating ruble, including holding their wealth in bitcoin and in stablecoins.
