As more than 100,000 Russian troops assemble on Ukraine’s border and global forces strive to keep the two nations from going to war, new data shows that Ukrainians are using bitcoin to fight back.
According to a report from Elliptic, which sells blockchain analytics tools to banks and some of the world’s largest cryptocurrency platforms, including Binance and Circle, donations totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars have poured into Ukrainian nongovernmental organisations and volunteer groups.
Activists have used the cryptocurrency for a number of objectives, including providing military weapons, medical supplies, and drones to the Ukrainian army, as well as supporting the development of a face recognition app that can identify if someone is a Russian mercenary or spy.
“With the tacit approval of governments, cryptocurrency is increasingly being used to crowdfund war,” said Elliptic’s principal scientist, Tom Robinson.
Although Russia has stated that it has no intention of launching an attack, the United States, the United Kingdom, and others have moved military hardware to Ukraine in preparation for a possible invasion.
