It was on February 24, 2022, that Russia launched the military offensive on Ukraine. On the completion of one year of the war, Chainalysis came up with a report tracking crypto donations to both Russia and Ukraine.
The report says Ukraine received nearly $70 million and pro-Russian groups $5.4 million in crypto donations since the war broke out last year.
Crypto Donations to Ukraine
The donations to Ukraine came mostly in ETH, BTC, USDT, and USDC, with their shares being $28.9 million, $22.8 million, $11.5 million, and $1.2 million, respectively.
Around 80% of the crypto donations came in the initial few months of the war. A Chainalysis report dated March 28, 2022, revealed that nearly $56 million worth of crypto was received by Ukraine by that time.
Another Chainalysis paper identified about 50 pro-Russia groups that collected crypto donations worth $2.2 million, CryptoPotato reported in July. The latest document says the number of these groups has risen to nearly 100 and the collections to nearly $5.4 million at the end of one year of the war.
Sanctions and Ransomware Attacks
In one year, the Chainalysis report says Russian oligarchs and institutions have not been able to use cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions, barring small transactions.
“Our findings suggested that the cryptocurrency markets are almost certainly too illiquid to support mass Russian sanctions evasion, though that does not mean this activity isn’t occurring on a smaller scale,” the report said.
However, pro-Russia hacking groups made away with $456.8 million in 2022, another Chainalysis report that mapped crypto crimes said.
“Ransomware attacks have often been utilized by bad actors for political agendas, and we’ve seen plenty of examples during the Russia-Ukraine War. For instance, Conti, a prolific Russia-based ransomware group, obtained approximately $66 million from victims in 2022,” the latest report says.
Donations to Turkey and Syria
Crypto companies have been prompt in sending and committing donations to earthquake-hit Turkey and Syria. Ripple has committed $1 million in humanitarian assistance while Binance ear-dropped $5 million to its users’ accounts in Turkey.
By February 15, crypto companies had sent over $9 million in donations to Turkey and Syria.
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