Russia-Ukraine war: How both sides of the conflict have used crypto to win

In the Russia-Ukraine war, some sides of the struggle person been leveraging cryptocurrencies to execute the precocious hand. 

Pro-Ukraine causes person collected astir $200 cardinal from crypto donations, showing however borderless and uncensorable wealth could beryllium utile successful clip of emergency. 

But the Russian broadside has taken vantage of crypto too: a full of astir $5 cardinal was raised by pro-Kremlin groups and propaganda outlets successful the people of the invasion, arsenic revealed by a caller Chainalysis report. These entities are tiny grassroot organizations that person utilized crypto to bypass occidental fiscal sanctions. 

“We're truly looking astatine idiosyncratic actors. So idiosyncratic who's connected the front, idiosyncratic who's trying to assistance supply much subject resources to the beforehand [...] things similar bulletproof vests oregon drones,” explained Andrew Fierman, caput of Sanctions Strategy astatine Chainalysis and 1 of the authors of the report.

But those numbers don’t instrumentality into relationship ransomware attacks: As shown successful Chainalysis data, successful the people of 2022, implicit $450 cardinal were paid to these entities, the bulk of which were believed to beryllium based successful Russia. Some of them, similar the cybercriminal radical Conti, person openly supported the Russian authorities successful its warfare effort.

“When it comes to ransomware payments, a batch of the clip atrocious actors person immoderate benignant of governmental agendas down what they're doing,” Fierman pointed out.

To find retired much astir the interaction of crypto successful the Ukrainian struggle and however Russia leveraged it to beforehand its cause, check retired the afloat interview connected our YouTube transmission and don’t hide to subscribe!