Crypto aid for Turkey exceeds $4.5M in one week Crypto aid for Turkey exceeds $4.5M in one week
Turkish financial watchdog stretched rules to allow crypto donations to help with disaster relief on Feb. 7.
1 min read
Updated: Feb. 14, 2023 at 7:28 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
The crypto community donated over $4.5 million in seven days to help Turkey with disaster relief.
Three wallets were created to collect donations on Feb. 7. Total amount donated sits at slightly over $4.5 million at the time of writing.
Donations
Avalanche (AVAX), which Turkish professor Emin Gün Sirer founded, donated $1 million, while Waves (WAVES) founder Sasha.waves donated $50,000 on the first day.
Crypto exchange platforms operating in the region Icrypex, Bitget Turkey, Bitci, MexC Turkey, Bitfinex Turkey, OKX, and Gate.io collectively donated $371,499, which equates to 7 million Turkish Lira.
Turkish and global crypto influencers and many others also contributed thousands of dollars in crypto to help with disaster relief in the region.
Background
After three significant earthquakes struck Turkey, a Turkish singer Haluk Levent persuaded the country’s financial watchdog (MASAK) to allow collecting crypto donations, which is currently illegal in the country.
MASAK allowed three crypto wallets to collect donations for a week. Wallets belong to Levent, who publishes all significant contributions and expenses on his Twitter account.
Mentioned in this article
Author 
Zeynep Geylan
Zeynep is an academic who turned to crypto in 2018. Originating in social sciences, she is especially interested in the social impact of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and strongly believes in their transmuting power.
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In this article
Avalanche
$34.2110
Avalanche is an umbrella platform for launching decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, financial assets, trading and other services.
Waves
$1.49789
Waves is an open blockchain protocol and development toolset for Web 3.0 applications and decentralized solutions, aiming to raise security, reliability and speed of IT systems.
Bitfinex
Bitfinex is a digital asset trading platform offering state-of-the-art services for digital currency traders and global liquidity providers.
OKX
OKX is a world-leading digital asset exchange, providing advanced financial services to global traders by using blockchain technology.