Mykhailo Fedorov, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, announced that it was now possible to make donations in Dogecoin (DOGE) to help Ukraine. He took the opportunity to tackle the price of the ruble and to ask Elon Musk and the creator of Dogecoin to help them.
Ukraine accepts Dogecoin donations
The list of cryptocurrencies accepted for donations in support of Ukraine continues to grow. After Polkadot’s DOT, preceded by Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and USDC ERC-20, it’s Dogecoin’s (DOGE) turn to make its entry.
It was Mykhailo Fedorov, the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister, who first announced it via his Twitter account, taking the opportunity in passing to make a dig at Russia:
“The value of Dogecoin has surpassed that of the ruble. We are now accepting donations in memecoins. Now even memes can support our army and save lives from the Russian invader. Owners of the DOGE all around the Earth, Elon Musk and Shibetoshi Nakamoto [creator of Dogecoin], let’s go.”
Within 2 hours, more than 210 transactions were made on the new address, totaling 52,000 DOGE, or about $6,900 at the time of writing this article.
Recall that according to one of its tweets, the Ukrainian government announced that it will gradually accept new cryptocurrencies for donations. So we can expect the list to grow even more in the coming days.
The role of cryptocurrencies in the conflict
Crypto-currencies are prominent in the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia on both sides.
On the Russian side first, it had been imagined that digital assets could serve as at least a temporary way out for the country, especially after the SWIFT network evicted several of its major banks. An idea denied by Jake Chervinsky, the executive vice president of the Blockchain Association, for whom it would prove to be a counterproductive choice.
However, it should be noted that Russian citizens continue to be able to take advantage of the various cryptocurrency platforms, whether decentralized or not, despite the request of Joe Biden’s government to cut off their access. Moreover, Binance had explicitly announced that it did not want to prevent its Russian users from using the services of its platform.
However, on the Ukrainian side, the government has been accepting cryptocurrency donations since February 28, which amount to several tens of millions of dollars and continue to flow in from all directions.
Apart from the donations made directly to Ukraine, many associations have also set up a support system through cryptocurrencies, such as UkraineDAO ($6.7 million), NGO Come Back Alive ($9 million) or Unchain Fund ($2 million), to name the main ones.
Finally, Ukrainian citizens are almost forced to turn to cryptocurrencies since their withdrawal limits have been limited and FOREX withdrawals have been banned altogether to avoid possible capital flight.
