(Bloomberg) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s legalization of virtual assets may make it easier for the government to collect and spend cryptocurrency donations, according to Alex Bornyakov, deputy minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
The “About Virtual Assets” law allows the government, private citizens and companies to trade, bequeath and list everything from tokens to NFTs. It also establishes a legal framework and a licensing regime for crypto exchanges, custodians and other digital-asset businesses.
“There’s a real attention to crypto donations, and we wanted to sort it out under a legal framework,” Bornyakov said in a video interview from Ukraine. “From now on, the government can do those things officially. Then we wanted to send a strong message to all companies in the world that once we finish this war, we welcome you on Ukrainian soil.”
More than 3.1 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia attacked it on Feb. 24. Thousands of civilians have died, and news coverage shows devastation from bombing. The country once had a thriving crypto industry, with many startups hiring skilled local developers.
So far, the ministry has collected nearly $56 million in crypto donations, up from $50 million two weeks ago, Bornyakov said. The pace of donations to the fund has slackened in recent days, and the Ukrainian government launched an official site, https://donate.the digital.gov.ua/, to make people more comfortable with donating, he said. Within several days, the site will start listing the hundreds of NFTs people have donated to the effort, and these digital assets will eventually be sold through various secondary markets, he said.
The pace of donations to the fund has slowed lately as the number of Ukrainian relief efforts has risen to about 20 to 30, Bornyakov said.
“The pace of donations is not slowing,” he said. “It exceeded our expectations, it’s far, far beyond what we expected at the beginning. It’s a matter of time before we reach $60 million or $70 million.” The ministry’s donation site is listing a $200 million goal.
The ministry has already spent about $33 million in crypto donations on a variety of items requested by the nation’s defense ministry, such as medical supplies, Bornyakov said.
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