RIYADH: The Ukrainian government is now preparing to receive Dogecoin donations, according to Mykhailo Fedorov, the country’s vice prime minister.
“Dogecoin exceeded the Russian ruble in value. We start to accept donations in meme coin. Now even memes can support our army and save lives from Russian invaders. Doge owners of the world, Elon Musk, Billy Markus, let’s do it,” the Ukrainian official said.
Dogecoin's acceptance comes after the Ukrainian government requested donations from Bitcoin and Ethereum which saw millions pouring into donation addresses.
“Sent some,” Dogecoin’s co-founder Billy Markus tweeted in response to Fedorov’s tweet.
“Dogecoin folks aren’t usually rich and dogecoin itself is generally used for small transactions, but we are a caring and passionate bunch. Those who want to help will offer what they can — I hope the country can heal and rebuild stronger after all of this,” Markus added.
Blockchain explorer stats show that the Dogecoin address holds $38,355, and donations are pouring in every minute.
Warning
People who wish to send cryptocurrency to the Ukrainians defending their country against a military operation launched by Russia, may fall into a trap set by phishing websites, forum posts and emails, Bleeping Computer has warned in an article.
The tech news outlet has identified a number of new scams luring crypto users to help Ukraine by donating cryptocurrencies to addresses different from those given by the Kyiv government and Ukrainian NGOs.
These messages range from fraudulent emails that appear to come from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs or NPR domains, for example, to forum posts that appear to be linked to the "Help Ukraine" movement, according to Bitcoin.com.
The report reveals that other cybersecurity and ransomware researchers such as Malware Hunter Team and Jake Jcybersec, have found more .org and .com domains established by scammers such as Ukraine-donate, Ukraineglobalaid and Ukrainewar.support.
Daily trading
Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency internationally, traded lower on Thursday, falling by 2.10 percent to $43,179 at 1:14 p.m. Riyadh time.
Ether, the second most traded cryptocurrency, was priced at $2,881, up by 4.01 percent, according to data from Coindesk.
