Kraken Will Give Away $10M Worth Of BTC To Ukraine: Report

Crypto exchange Kraken will give away $10M worth of BTC to the people in Ukraine affected by the war with Russia, as we can see more today in our latest Bitcoin news today.

The leading crypto exchange Kraken will give away $10 million in BTC to Ukrainian citizens who opened an account before March 10^th. The initiative is designed to help those that are in need after Russia attacked the country in a “special military operation.” The list of companies, exchanges, and individuals is doing their best to aid Ukraine’s wellbeing in the war with Russia which keeps on enhancing. The latest example came from the US-based exchange Kraken.

Kraken revealed it will donate Bitcoins to Ukrainian users who signed up before March 10^th so the citizens will be able to withdraw the crypto immediately in addition Kraken will distribute $1000 in Kraken fee credits to ensure customers that can make conversions at no cost. Overall, the company said it will give away more than $10 million worth of digital assets to affected citizens and the platform hopes this will be seen as a reasonable compromise since it refused to block the Russian-based users. The CEO of the platform Jesse Powell commented:

“We hope to continue being able to provide critical financial services in a time of need to both our clients in Ukraine and Russia. Cryptocurrency remains an important humanitarian tool, especially at a time when many around the world can no longer rely on traditional banks and custodians.”

Kraken explained that a $10 million donation is equal to the total trading fees paid by the Russian-based clients over the first few months of 2022 and as such, the company won’t profit from their custom which is another way to display an approval of the military conflict. Amid the invasion of Ukraine, the country’s Vice Prime Minister urged the crypto exchanges to block all Russian users and their blockchain addresses.

However, Kraken and Binance didn’t follow the request. Both of them argued that crypto Is meant to provide bigger financial freedom and as such, a move like that can oppose the concept of the industry. It suggested that most of the accounts belong to “innocent” people that are not related to the war. Kraken also took a similar stance and described cryptocurrencies as the embodiment of libertarian values and as such, it will be a mistake to freeze the Russian clients’ accounts. Coinbase blocked 25,000 Russian blockchain addresses that were connected with individuals that performed illegal activities.