Crypto donations from around the world 🌎 continue to pour in to support Ukraine in fending off Russia’s attack.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is both devastating and immoral. We wanted to shine a light on the humanitarian efforts by the global crypto community who have rallied behind Ukraine’s government and its people.

So far, more than US$56 million in cryptocurrency has been raised to support the Ukrainian government, military and NGOs since the start of the invasion.

A CryptoPunk NFT worth approximately US$200,000 was also sent to the Ukrainian government’s Ethereum account.

UkrainianDAO, which is being organized by Pussy Riot, Trippy Labs and other leading activists, says 💯 per cent of the donations will go to the country’s people who are suffering from the war. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared a link to the initiative and called it “an opportunity to support Ukrainians.” 🇺🇦

It’s great to see the community band together during this terrible time and is an accurate representation of the space we know and are part of.

Despite millions being raised by the crypto industry for Ukraine and its people, it’s not enough to keep the critics at bay.

It’s been a challenging year for an industry that has largely been ignored for more than a decade. On Thursday, we spoke with Global News 🎙️ about how the sector might be impacted by recent geopolitical events.

Crypto is often misjudged because people who don’t participate in, or get to know the space, have a difficult time understanding it. Protocols are designed to be politically neutral, but that doesn’t mean those who use it are. The point of this technology is that it doesn’t fall under one nation’s political agenda, but is guided by those who use it. 👨‍💻

What the overwhelming support for Ukraine has shown us is that there are a lot of good people with pure intentions who are part of this ecosystem. In order for us to convince regulators and skeptics to take this asset class more seriously, we need to find ways to close the knowledge gap 💡 and help the rest of the world 🌎 see the industry’s potential.

OK, we’re flexing a bit 💪, but we’re really excited that earlier this week we surpassed $500,000 in staking rewards! 🥳 #NBD.

So far, we’ve staked more than $71 million in ETH (20,603), which allows us to generate revenue and help secure 🔐 the network ahead of the upcoming Merge.

ICYMI we had a great discussion with the NEO Exchange last week — you can watch the full recap on YouTube.

The TLDR version:

We discussed how much the industry has evolved from the early days and the fact we’re seeing more use cases for smart contract technology. 💡

We also emphasized the importance of clear and direct access points ✅ for retail investors, including structured products, to help them get exposure to this emerging asset class.

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to crypto adoption is its volatility. 🎢 Rather than focus on the day-to-day spot price, we encourage people to pay attention to the developers 👷 who are building core infrastructure that will play a fundamental role in the future of finance and Web3. 💻

Investors should ask themselves: Can you imagine a world where peer-to-peer transactions are common and self-composed innovative technology is a part of our everyday lives? If the answer is yes, then HODL. 😉

Brian Mosoff, CEO of Ether Capital, spoke with Global News about how the crypto industry faces pressure against the backdrop of war in Ukraine.

Our CTO Shayan Eskandari was also in the news this week. As someone who audits crypto code for a living, he shared tips with The Business of Business about how to play it safe when getting involved in a DeFi project.

“Ethereum is neutral, but I am not” 🇺🇦

Many of us noticed the strong message that Russian born, Canadian raised Vitalik Buterin posted on Twitter a couple weeks ago. Vitalik is known for being more of an introvert, but this is a good story about what inspired him to take a stance against Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

ConsenSys Controversy 😬

A group of 35 shareholders is asking a Swiss court to conduct an audit of ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin. They allege Lubin illegally shifted valuable assets and intellectual property from ConsenSys AG (CAG) — also known as ConsenSys Mesh — to ConsenSys Software Inc. (CSI) without shareholder input. ConsenSys responded to the allegations saying the press release is “factually incorrect” and was self-authored by one of the company’s former employees.

More Crypto Oversight 🧑‍⚖️

The war in Ukraine has prompted regulators around the world, including U.S. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, to call for regulatory oversight of crypto in case Russia attempts to use cryptocurrency to evade sanctions. Considering distributed ledger technology efficiently records all transactions that take place on public blockchains, it would be very difficult for Russia to secretly move funds without leaving behind digital breadcrumbs that point out suspicious activity.

One newsletter subscriber recently asked:

“Do you see regulatory risk for further growth and development of Ethereum, and if so, which aspect of the ecosystem could be most vulnerable? How should we protect ourselves from that risk?”

Here is Ether Capital’s CEO Brian Mosoff’s response:

“Globally, regulators and governments are currently working to come up with appropriate frameworks to balance regulation and innovation. One thing we can say is that in Canada, our regulators have worked in a collaborative spirit with industry to bring the world’s first structured products to market (the Purpose Bitcoin ETF — hooray!) as well as a path to registration for our local platforms. There are still many things to be worked out including clarity around regulation, but we remain optimistic the industry will continue to grow and thrive.”

The industry is quickly evolving and there’s a lot of information to keep up with. That’s why we want to help! 🦸

Email us your questions and we’ll respond to as many as we can. While we can’t provide investment advice, we do want to steer you in the right direction so you can be informed.

Thank you for subscribing to our weekly newsletter! We’d love to hear your feedback so please don’t hesitate to reach out. 😎 🚀