Ten incredible facts about crypto philanthropy
2021 was an incredible year for crypto philanthropy, and despite cryptocurrency markets being down to start the new year, crypto giving has not slowed down. Every day more non-profits begin accepting cryptocurrency donations, more innovative web3 projects launch with a charitable giving component, and more donors decide to make a donation to a cause of their choice via cryptocurrency.
Despite this, many still believe that crypto philanthropy is just a fad that will die off in time. I dive a bit more into the value of crypto giving, and why non-profits should get on board in a previous blog post titled “What’s the point in accepting cryptocurrency donations? – A short essay”, but to further build the case for crypto giving, and to show that it is anything but a fad, for this blog post, we will share ten incredible facts about crypto giving.
1. According to The Giving Block, approximately $300,000,000 USD worth of cryptocurrency is donated to charitable causes each year.
2. One study found that almost half of cryptocurrency owners donated $1,000 or more to charity in 2020, compared to only about one third of the investor population as a whole.
3. This CryptoGivingTuesday, The Giving Block had 1007 non-profits participate, up a whopping 839% from the year before.
4. Between 2020 and 2021, GiveDirectly, an organization that provides cash transfers to those living in extreme poverty, saw the number of individuals donating cryptocurrency increase by 6000%
5. Endaoment, a registered charity offering Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) on the Ethereum Blockchain, has facilitated $30.5M in donations through its platform at the time of writing.
6. To date, the UNICEF innovation fund has received 8 BTC and 2527 ETH in cryptocurrency donations, valued at over $6.5 million USD at the time of writing.
7. According to The Giving Block, The average crypto gift on #CryptoGivingTuesday was a whopping $12,600 USD, or 98.4x higher that the non-profit industry’s average donation size.
8. Despite being in operation for under one year, Elongate, a cryptocurrency built on the Binance Smart Chain, has already raised nearly $3.5 million for charities through their protocol. A 10% fee for transacting in Elongate rewards token holders while a significant sum from each fee is donated to a variety of charitable causes.
9. Médecins Sans Frontières recently received a donation of $3.5 million in what was the world’s largest cryptocurrency donation from an NFT project.
10. To date, Binance Charity has facilitated just under 2,000 BTC worth of charitable donations (or approximately $70,000,000 USD at the time of writing), supporting over 1.8 million beneficiaries.
These ten facts are really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to crypto philanthropy, but they help demonstrate the amazing potential for growth and widescale adoption in the space. Crypto philanthropy has gained incredible momentum in recent years, and for those non-profits that are not currently accepting cryptocurrency donations, I truly believe that “it’s not a matter of if, but when”, as crypto giving is here to stay.
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