Ukrainian charities use crypto actively, saying donations have increased during the bear market
The Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationan organization that raises money for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia, has used crypto actively in its collection and sees donations increase in crypto terms even though the market has fallen from its heights.
According to Roman Sinicyn, the foundation’s military coordinator, crypto has been embraced both as a convenient way for people to donate to them, and as a way for the foundation itself to pay for various equipment which it then donates to the Ukrainian army.
Sinicyn told Cryptonews.com that the Prytula Foundation has raised more than $ 4.5 million in cryptocurrencies since the war began on February 24 this year.
Among the items the foundation has purchased with the donated funds are drones, such as Turkish-made Bayraktarplus Volkswagen minivans from Germany and equipment such as night vision goggles.
Sinicyn explained that some of the equipment, including radios, night-vision equipment and even cars, can be purchased with crypto directly, while the German-made minivans must be paid for with fiat after first exchanging crypto donations for fiat currency.
“In general, crypto is still rarely used for purchases, most vendors want cash. But crypto is becoming more popular, we have our vendors specifically asking for crypto: for drones in Estonia, for cars in the UK and Slovakia,” he told Cryptonews .com.
Among the benefits of crypto, Sinicyn stated that crypto is practical and that it makes the life of volunteers easier. He further explained that operating with crypto also saves time that would otherwise have been spent waiting for things like bank and government approvals, as well as paying bank fees.
“[W]When you are dealing with the help of the army, timing is everything […] The sooner drones, night-vision equipment and cars arrive, the sooner they will end up in the front line to save the lives of our military, he said.
The cryptocurrencies that the nonprofit has received include tether (USDT), bitcoin (BTC) and various Ethereum-based ERC-20 tokens.
The reason why the foundation started with crypto in the first place, according to Sinicyn, was that Serhiy Prytula, the Ukrainian TV presenter and politician who founded the foundation, in March posted a message on Facebook for the crypto community asking if anyone would like to donate on this the way.
“We received good feedback from the crypto community in the form of a stream of donations in cryptocurrency for a few hundred thousand dollars,” said Sinicyn. He added that the largest crypto donation they have received so far was a gift of USD 1.8 million from the British-Ukrainian investor and entrepreneur Maksym Polyakov, the owner of the private rocket manufacturer Firefly Aerospace.
“Crypto in Ukraine is not regulated, it is not monitored, but it is not banned,” Sinicyn said, before finally adding that crypto now “helps do many good things for Ukraine’s armed forces.”
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