Vitalik Buterin Of Ethereum (ETH) Deleted Warning about Ukraine Wallet

While Ukraine working hard at fighting Russia’s invasion, the Ukrainian government has been soliciting Bitcoin contributions.

So far, the Ukrainian government-listed Ethereum wallet has received about $5 million in cryptocurrency.

The government-listed Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets on Twitter have already received around $4.9 million in cryptocurrency. As of 22:39 UTC, the Ethereum wallet has collected slightly more than $3.9 million in contributions. As at the same time, the Bitcoin wallet had received $970,000, with part of the bitcoin already handed out.

Mykhailo Fedorov’s, The Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister, has been soliciting cryptocurrency donations through the official Twitter accounts by publishing wallet addresses for contributions of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and the stable coin Tether (USDT).

Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine expressed:  Stand with the people of Ukraine Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Ethereum.

Bitcoin and Tether (USDTtrc20)

BTC — 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P

ETH — 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14

USDT (trc20) — TEFccmfQ38cZS1DTZVhsxKVDckA8Y6VfCy

Initially, funds were coming only from specific locations due to concerns that the Ukrainian government account had been hacked.

While Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin questioned the legitimacy of the requests, the tweets were sent from verified accounts. (Buterin subsequently said that the accounts were “legit” and that he would remove his warning.)

Vitalik Buterin expressed:  Getting some confirmations from a couple sources that it’s legit. Deleting my warning for now. But continue to be vigilant, and always be slow and careful when sending irreversible crypto transactions.

H.E. Justin Sun Stated, I want to echo Vitalik Buterin’s tweet here. There are numerous scam accounts posting fake Ukraine gov addresses. Always be vigilant and ONLY donate your money to verified Ukraine and @FedorovMykhailo account address. I have talked to the embassy of Ukraine to the WTO and the embassy has replied to me in 5 mins that “the information you have is correct!” So, all the addresses have been verified! Let’s do it! Don’t miss this chance!

Otherwise about the donations, The Ukrainian government’s representatives were not immediately available for comment, and the country’s official website looked to be down.

When this post was initially published, the wallets had around $435,000 in cryptocurrency, but little over an hour later, the Bitcoin wallet held over $500,000 or 13 BTC, later the Ethereum wallet held approximately $3.6 million or 1,090 ETH in total; However, there are signs that some bitcoin has already been withdrawn from the corresponding wallet, thus this may not be the whole amount provided.

This is not the first time that bitcoins have been used to help Ukrainians in their fight against the Russian invasion. A digital wallet used to raise contributions for the Ukrainian army has collected over $6 million in bitcoin.