Organizations and individuals attempting to assist Ukraine in the current conflict with Russia continues to increase, with the most recent being Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange based in the United States.
Kraken, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, will reward each Ukrainian citizen who registers for an account on the platform by March 10th $1,000 in bitcoin. The effort aims to assist individuals in need following Russia’s “special military operation” in the country.
Citizens can immediately withdraw the cryptocurrency, and Kraken will provide $1,000 in Kraken Fee Credits to ensure that consumers can make free conversions.
In total, the corporation claimed it will give away more than $10 million in digital assets to those in Ukraine who have been harmed by the crisis.
Since it previously refused to restrict its Russian-based users, Kraken expects this would be seen as a sensible compromise. Jesse Powell, the platform’s CEO, stated:
“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 went on to say that the $10 million donations are comparable to the entire trading costs paid by Russian-based clients in the first few months of 2022.
As a result, the company will not profit from their business, which is just another method for the company to show its opposition to the armed conflict.
Binance and Kraken exchange did not restrict Russian users
During Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister, encouraged leading digital asset platforms to prohibit all Russian users’ blockchain addresses.
Binance and Kraken, on the other hand, did not comply with the request. The former claimed that “crypto is supposed to bring greater financial freedom,” and that such a move would go against the industry’s ethos.
It further claimed that the vast majority of such accounts belonged to “innocent” people who had nothing to do with the war.
Bitcoin and other altcoins were described as the epitome of libertarian ideas by Kraken, who held a similar stance. As a result, Powell believes that freezing all Russian clients’ accounts would be a mistake.
Coinbase, on the other hand, has blacklisted 25,000 Russian blockchain addresses linked to people suspected of being involved in illicit activity.
