Cryptocurrency Helping Ukraine’s Army, Raising Questions For U.S.
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Ukraine’s government says it has raised some $106 million in global donations in cryptocurrency for its army. At the same time, nations rush to launch their digital currencies as an alternative to the U.S. dollar.
Confronted with an ongoing Russian invasion, Ukraine received bitcoin, Ethereum, and tether to buy “5,500 bulletproof vests with 500 ballistic plates, 3,427 medicines, 60 walkie-talkies, 3,125 thermal images and optics, and 500 helmets,” officials said.
Deputy Minister of Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, Alex Bornyakov, said, “crypto-assets proved extremely helpful in facilitation of funding flows to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Huge thanks to everyone who donated to the Crypto Fund of Ukraine.”
He added on social networking site Twitter that “each and every helmet and vest bought via crypto donations is currently saving Ukrainian soldiers’ lives.”
The donations came as explosions reverberated throughout Ukraine, including around the capital Kyiv where Russian forces seem to prepare for an assault, satellite images suggest.
Ukraine raised cryptocurrency donations amid concerns that western sanctions on the Russian central bank will make non-western countries shun the dollar in the future.
WATCHING CHINA
China has already launched its digital currency though analysts say the coin is not yet freely convertible, and the entire cryptocurrency world is a “mere” $2 trillion in size.
The greenback’s status as the world’s primary reserve currency is not yet endangered in wartime as the U.S. cooperates closely with the European Central Bank, but that could change within years, experts say.
Watching cryptocurrency even impacting the battlefields of Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden took a brief break from frenetic White House diplomacy on the war and efforts to curb spiraling oil prices.
Instead, he announced the first American federal policy initiative for digital assets. The details are vague but include backing for the U.S. Federal Reserve’s fledgling efforts to develop a digital dollar and investigate regulating cryptocurrency.
With the turbulent world moving towards alternative payment systems, Biden’s attempts are both welcomed and criticized by cryptocurrency investors.
For now, cryptocurrency donations have helped at least some Ukrainian soldiers to perhaps feel somewhat safer and less hungry as they face another day of fighting against a massive Russian army.
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