Gavin Wood – founder of Polkadot – recently donated $5 Million worth of DOT to support Ukraine’s defense against Russian military aggression. The founder promised to provide the funds so long as Ukraine provided a DOT address publicly, which it now has.
Following Russia’s invasion of the country, Ukraine took to Twitter on February 26th to solicit support through crypto donations from the international community. At the time, the country only provided a public Bitcoin and Ethereum address to accept Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Tether (USDT) contributions.
The following day, Gavin Wood came to their account manager with an offer. If they provided a public Polkadot address, he would donate $5 million worth of DOT to their cause.
Polkadot is an open-source blockchain platform that helps bridge together assets from separate blockchains. It was founded in 2016, and its native cryptocurrency DOT is currently the 11th largest by market cap.
Today, Ukraine appears to have responded to Wood’s offer. They have now published a public Polkadot address for donors to use, and will soon begin accepting other cryptos as well.
“The people of Ukraine are grateful for the support and donations from the global crypto community as we protect our freedom,” they stated. “An airdrop has not been confirmed yet.”
Holding his end of the deal, Wood responded by providing a link to a transaction hash of a donation he provided just hours ago, which included 298,367 DOT. Given that each DOT is currently worth $18.78, that’s worth $5.6 million at the time of writing.
The address appears to have collected a slew of smaller donations both before and after Wood’s contribution. The address’s 6th donation – worth 10,000 DOT – appears to be the 2nd largest it has received. In total, it now holds 311,150 DOT worth over $5.83 million.
In total, Ukraine has amassed tens of millions of dollars in crypto donations within week. The nation’s Bitcoin address has received over 200 BTC, while its Ethereum address has been sent over 2500 ETH. This mirrors the success of other successful political fundraisers as of late, including Bitcoin fundraiser for Canadian truckers and a legal defense fund for Julian Assange.