Since Russian forces attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Elliptic has revealed that both countries have used blockchain technology to obtain funding for their war efforts. This study was based on data collected by crypto analytics company over the past year.
The company stated that many campaigns had sought to harness the core developments of the crypto ecosystem to help their fundraising, from decentralized finance (defi), to crypto pre-paid card to crypto pre-paid cards. Digital cash was used to fund sanctioned organizations and humanitarian causes.
Analyzing transactions traced by Elliptic reveals that $212.1 million in crypto assets was the bulk of the money. This money went to support Ukraine. The Russian Federation is a close military and political ally in Belarus. They attracted $0.7 million to support anti-government groups in Belarus.
Pro-Russian groups have raised approximately $4.8 million to support the Russian military and its associated militias. According to the report, more than 10% of these donations were made from illegal sources. The authors identified darknet markets and sanctioned entities as well as stolen credit card vendors.
Forklog also noted that less than 2% came from these sources. Crypto news outlet Forklog also reported that Russian activists have raised more money since May 2022 and that they raised more bitcoin and Ethereum in June than the Ukrainians.
According to TRM Labs, between February and September, Pro-Russian entities accumulated approximately $400,000 in cryptocurrency. Blockchain intelligence company Chainalysis reported that 54 of these groups had collectively received more than $2.2 million in cryptocurrency.
Ukraine’s Digital Minister Claims that Majority of Military Suppliers Accept Crypto
Many of the crypto-funding initiatives in Ukraine were initiated or supported by the government of Kyiv which received $83.3million in its own wallets. Elliptic noted that Defi, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralized autonomous organisations (DAOs), have been a key part in crypto fundraising for Ukraine. They have attracted over $78 million in donations.
Alex Bornyakov , Ukraine’s Minister for Digital Transformation, spoke to Yahoo Finance UK’s “The Crypto Mile” podcast. He revealed that his country had been purchasing military equipment using crypto. He claimed that 60% of suppliers were willing to pay in digital currencies so that Ukraine could purchase essentials like helmets and bulletproof vests.
According to the report, more than 100,000 people sent crypto to Ukraine. Bornyakov stated that donations ranged from one dollar to millions of dollars. He explained that Ukraine used crypto to get immediate aid at the beginning of the war. He explained that if we used traditional financial systems, it would have taken days.
