Telegram messenger founder and CEO Pavel Durov reportedly donated about $90,000 worth of bitcoin to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia.
Egor Zhukov, a student political activist who organized a crowdfunding campaign to help people cope with the COVID 19 pandemic-related crisis, announced Durov donated 10 BTC to the effort. Zhukov wrote on his Instagram earlier this week that the donation will help volunteers buy more food and deliver it to people who can’t afford it. The initiative was named Vzaimipomosch, which in Russian means “The Mutual Help.”
Pavel Durov reached out to the political activist who organized the crowdfunding platform.
Egor Zhukov told the news outlet Coindesk that Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov reached out by himself and offered to help the cause. He said that a part of the donation has already been spent. The donation made by Pavel Durov is quite large as 10 BTC at the moment equals 66,89,982 Russian rubles. This amount of money can buy an apartment in Moscow. Vzaimipomosch’s bitcoin wallet saw some 14 BTC in donations since March. Telegram’s blockchain project, TON, was shut down earlier this month after a prolonged legal fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which alleged Telegram’s multi-billion dollar ICO was an unregistered securities offering.
Crypto companies step to help fight the COVID 19 pandemic.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is not the only one who has donated funds to help fight the ongoing pandemic. Major crypto and blockchain companies have all come together to help fight the COVID 19 pandemic. Crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX operator HDR Global Trading Limited donated $2.5 million towards the global effort to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The crypto giant is donating funds to four organizations that are working to fight the pandemic. The four organizations are Gates Philanthropy Partners, Nuclear Threat Initiative, OpenMined, and Our World in Data. Each of these organizations would receive grants between $300,000 and $1,000,000. Crypto exchange giant Binance set up a charity fund to help fight the ongoing pandemic and had also donated $1.5 million to help victims of the COVID 19 in Wuhan in January.
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