Over half of the crypto donations campaigns professing to fund Ukraine’s attempts to repel the Russian invasion turned out to be clear hoaxes
According to a new analysis, over half of the crypto donations campaigns professing to fund Ukraine’s attempts to repel the Russian invasion are “clear hoaxes.” However, those schemes accounted for only a small part of the funds received since the invasion began.
Fake Crypto Donations
Those who want to help Ukraine fight the Russian invasion should be cautious not to fall for fraud.
According to new research by blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, over half of the more than 50 crypto donations campaigns examined were “clear scams” that did not transfer the funds to fund humanitarian or military initiatives as claimed.
While the authors’ assessment was relatively pessimistic, they did remark that scam campaigns “accounted for a modest percentage of overall trade volume.” Donors, in other words, had a good sense of what was a fraud and what was a legitimate crowdfunding campaign.
The research also classified campaigns by type. Non-government organizations, non-state players who are nonetheless active (military or cyber), private, for-profit campaigns, and official governmental or military operations were among the campaign categories.
Non-governmental organizations were the most common, raising $48 million from the two crypto majors, Bitcoin and Ethereum, alone, despite accounting for roughly half of the roughly 50 campaigns analyzed, whereas official government or military campaigns, which accounted for only a small portion of the campaigns, raised more than $50 million.
Even before the Russian invasion, crypto donations were steadily supporting Ukraine’s defense efforts, totaling more than $135.7 million between Feb. 22 and Mar. 28.
TRM examined over 50 ads and found that 33 distinct crypto assets were used.
The authors believe that the presence of anonymous or semi-anonymous participants in crypto, which is inherent in the technology’s “decentralized structure,” contributes to the dozens of fraudulent crypto donations campaign.
