Russian-Born Vitalik Buterin Quietly Donated $5M Ethereum To Ukraine

Ethereum ETH/USD co-founder Vitalik Buterin has quietly donated $5 million worth of cryptocurrency to Ukraine.

What Happened: According to an update from Aid For Ukraine on Thursday, Buterin is said to have donated $2.5 million to Aid For Ukraine and another $2.5 million to the Unchain Fund.

.@VitalikButerin donated almost $2.5M in $ETH to @_AidForUkraine 2 days ago, and didn't say a word! He's also donated $2.5M to @Unchainfund.

Thanks for your enormous help, Vitalik, and thank you for creating @ethereum! The #Ethereum community is pic.twitter.com/HuvDcTM40e

— Aid For Ukraine  (@_AidForUkraine) April 6, 2022

Aid For Ukraine is a joint initiative by the Ukrainian government, crypto exchange FTX, decentralized staking prover Everstake, and Ukrainian crypto exchange Kuna.

The Unchain Fund is a charity initiative started by the blockchain community to provide humanitarian relief to Ukraine.

Buterin did not disclose his contribution, despite the considerably large sum donated which was only linked back to him because on-chain data revealed his wallet address and ENS domain name “vitalik.eth.”

Russia-born Buterin has been a vocal critic of the invasion of Ukraine. In February, he publicly opposed Vladimir Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine and called it a “crime against Ukrainian and Russian people.”

"I couldn't be more grateful for every crypto donation to our lifesaving initiative, Aid for Ukraine. It really helps to strengthen our country and protect its democratic values. Special thanks to Vitalik Buterin for standing with Ukraine," stated Alex Bornyakov, deputy minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.

Data shows that Ukraine has received more than $100 million worth of donations in Bitcoin BTC/USD, Ethereum, Dogecoin DOGE/USD, Polkadot DOT/USD, and Solana SOL/USD.

Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, ETH was trading at $43,611, up 0.63% in the last 24 hours.

Photo courtesy: Duncan Rawlinson on Flickr