Turkish Nonprofits Raise Millions of Dollars in Crypto for Earthquake Response

Nonprofit organizations new to cryptocurrency are leading an effort to raise millions of dollars in crypto to aid victims of the region’s major earthquake.

Turkish singer Haluk Levent’s charity Ahbap is leading the response with roughly $2 million in crypto donations raised on the AvalancheBSCEthereum blockchains in less than a day. Local exchange Paribu is also fundraising for two nonprofits assisting in the response.

On Twitter, The addresses had been approved by the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) of Turkey, despite the prohibition of crypto payments by the country's central bank in April 2021. Masak didn't comment right away.

Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world by volume of commerce, also at airdrop $100 per user in nbb, native BINANCE token, to its Turkish users, a sum of about $5 million.

The effort is the last example of cryptography used for participatory financing of cross-border responses. The Government of Ukraine has raised millions of dollars for its war effort following the invasion of Russia last February.

At the time of the press, avax, a native avalanche token, accounts for 55.56% of the total donations sent to the cryptocurrency addresses of the ahbap, worth around 1.1 million dollars, by . The Avalanche foundation had a million dollars in it.

In addition, 42.65 per cent of total donations come from various stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency whose value is linked to an asset like the US dollar. Crypto users donated approximately $788,000 to usdt, usdc and bus.

Both Turkish coindesk serdar turan and alpboru contributed to the report.

UPDATE (7 Feb. 2023 20:59:31 UTC) Clarified the commitment of Binance to release BNB to its Turkish users.