Vitalik Buterin donates 149 ETH to help earthquake victims in Turkey

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent Ethereum donations totaling $227,000 to charities to help victims of the earthquake in Turkey. Last week, a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey.

The death toll exceeded 33,000. Many cryptocurrency companies and exchanges did not remain indifferent to what happened, and allocated donations in crypto assets to help the victims. Among them was Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

On February 12, he sent 50 ETH (about $77,000) to the Anka Relief cryptocurrency fund account, according to PeckShield, an analytics firm. The management of the fund expressed gratitude to Buterin and all the crypto-currency companies that transferred the funds. Anka Relief reported that donations in cryptocurrencies have been flowing to non-governmental organizations since the first day of the disaster.

The Foundation has published a list of cryptocurrency addresses to which contributions can be sent. 

"We want to thank @VitalikButerin for donating 50 ETH ~$75k to Anka Relief, a crypto aid fund & community to support Türkiye after the recent earthquakes. https://t.co/kGwXSGWL8J Dive into the thread below to better understand our mission and ops https://t.co/92CkxevI5e" 

Anka Relief (@AnkaRelief) February 12, 2023

Ahbap said it has already received $4.3 million in digital assets, and most of the donations come in stablecoins. According to Etherscan, there are 409 ETH worth about $622,000 in Ahbap's wallet.

Vitalik Buterin is convinced that cryptocurrencies should be used for good purposes. In 2021, he sold all of his holdings of meme cryptocurrencies for 15,719 ETH and donated the proceeds to charities, including the coronavirus fund. This is not the first time that cryptocurrencies have been used to help people affected by natural disasters.

For example, back in 2015, the miner manufacturer BitFury, together with the Georgian Investment Fund, organized a fundraising in Bitcoins to help flood victims in Tbilisi.