Binance Pledges $1 Million to Japan Flood Victims, Calls for Donations
Binance calls for donations to victims of West Japan’s ongoing natural disaster, leading the relief initiative with a $1,000,000 pledge.
In a July 8th, 2018, an announcement on the exchange’s website, the Binance team stated:
“To help out the victims in West Japan that were affected by the heavy rains on 7/7/2018, Binance is donating $1,000,000 USD and calling for our crypto friends and partners to join us in the relief initiative.”
Having claimed more than 100 lives, West Japan’s unprecedented downpour has resulted in flooding and landslides displacing tens of thousands — as reported by the Japan Times. In response, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe incited a “race against time” to rescue flood victims — of whom up to 1,850 are currently trapped on the roofs of buildings.
Appealing for donations, Binance — the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume — posted an Ethereum address where the public may send ETH or ERC20 tokens as contributions to the cause. All expenditure is to be explained by Binance and used strictly for charity, according to the announcement.
Binance’s multi-billionaire CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao tweeted his commiserations and urged cryptocurrency “partners” to donate:
Our hearts go out to the victims in West Japan. @binance will begin with a $1,000,000 USD equivalent donation in either BNB, BTC, or JPY. We also ask our crypto partners to join us and help our friends in need.
— CZ (not giving crypto away) (@cz_binance) July 8, 2018
CZ’s appeal appears to resonate strongly throughout the cryptocurrency community — a number of projects stating commitment in the tweet’s lengthy comment thread, including the 0x Bitcoin Mining Community, ColossusXT, and Pied Piper Coin.
Offering a deal-sweetener, CZ went on to note that all donations may be counted towards a project’s listing on Binance:
Exact logistics will be figured out shortly. Reply to this thread or let me know if you (ur project) want to donate. Bonus points for future listing requests. And we may count your donations towards the listing fees. Listed projects, you know what to do!
— CZ (not giving crypto away) (@cz_binance) July 8, 2018
According to public data on Etherscan, the Binance donation wallet has nearly $95,000 worth of Ether at time of press, and more than $1 million in ERC20 token contributions — including a 1,000,000 ($31,000) transaction from the ABYSS genesis wallet.