- The crypto community raises over $2 million within hours to help recovery efforts in Turkey
- Head of Ahbap and Turkish rock star Haluk Levent convinced the government to allow crypto donations for a week despite the ongoing crypto ban in the country
- Several crypto executives and companies join the efforts with actual donations nearing $4 million and pledges of over $9 million
Turkey and Syria have been hit with massive earthquakes in the last few days resulting in thousands of casualties but even more, survivors who need help. This has moved many in the crypto industry who desire to donate and contribute to various cryptocurrencies.
However, the Turkish ban on crypto that has been in effect since 2021 held the Turkish crypto community from initiating a fundraiser with fears that the donations may be viewed as payments rendering them illegal.
After receiving requests from the many willing to make donations in crypto, Turkish rock star Haluk Levent who also happens to be the head of the non-profit organization Ahbap put a poll on his Twitter asking his 6.9 million followers whether he should open an account for crypto donations considering it is illegal. The poll received over 1 million responses, with 81.6% supporting the idea.
The influential rock star brought the matter to the Turkish government. After meeting with MASAK, the Turkish Financial Crimes Investigation Board, Levent received the go-ahead to set up a wallet and accept donations for one week.
The account has three addresses in Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Avalanche blockchain platforms. The wallet received over $2 million within a few hours of set up, totaling $3.75 million at the time of writing. The wallet on Ethereum has been named “Ahbap Yardım / Earthquake Support” to differentiate it from scammer addresses, as there is no centralized authority to reverse transactions once made.
Of the total amount, Avalanche contributed $1 million in AVAX tokens and encouraged others to join the effort. The Executive Director of the Avalanche Foundation, Aytunc Yıldızlı, said:
“Turkey is close to the heart of the Avalanche Foundation and community, and the funds will help people recover faster in the wake of this tragedy. It is time to come together and shows that crypto is a force for good and a sign of hope for all of us hurting.”
More crypto companies, including Binance, KuCoin, OKX, and Tether, have pledged over $9 million in donations to help the earthquake survivors and victims. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that it was time to help their users, adding that:
“The recent earthquakes in Turkey have had a devastating impact on so many people and communities. We hope that our efforts will bring some relief to those affected. We are calling on our industry peers to come together again to offer support in these times of crisis.”
Zhao announced that Binance would airdrop $100 (1883 TRY) in BNB, adding up to about $5 million, to users in the region.
More join the cause
According to recent reports, the death toll has risen beyond 17000, with over 66000 injured and over 3 million homeless. On the other hand, the crypto community continues to join forces to help the country, as was the case in 2021 with India and in 2022 with Ukraine.
As an addition to the list of executives, Justin Sun pledged to donate $1 million in TRX from the Huobi Global cryptocurrency exchange through the Paribu crypto exchange. Crypto firms Bitfinex, Keet, Synonym, and Tether also collectively pledged 5 million Turkish Lira, which is $266000, to offer relief and recovery to the victims.
Gate.io, a crypto exchange platform, also pledged 1 million Turkish Lira to support the ongoing recovery efforts. In addition, the exchange partnered with Gate NFT to produce the Earthquake Recovery Donation NFT collection of badges to enable more donations towards the cause.
