Binance starts $5 million campaign to fight coronavirus

Today, Binance Charity, the blockchain-powered donation platform launched by major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has launched a Coronavirus Relief Campaign. It aims to collect $5 million in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, XRP, Binance Coin and Binance USD, to give to coronavirus relief efforts.

“Binance increases our donations to $5,000,000 USD to help fight #coronavirus worldwide, starting with Italy, US, Spain, Germany [...] Join our effort in #CryptoAgainstCOVID. Every Satoshi counts,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao wrote on Twitter.

According to the announcement, Binance will spearhead the effort by donating $1 million initially and has committed to adding up to $2 million through the “#CryptoAgainstCOVID” social media campaign.

“In addition, Binance will match $1 million USD of public donations received,” the post said.

The collected funds will be used to buy medical supplies for the countries that were affected by COVID-19 the most, such as Italy, Germany, Spain, the Republic of Korea, Iran, Turkey, the US and the UK.

“The most important element of human life is to show compassion and help others as we can, without the limitation or restriction of borders,” said Helen Hai, head of Binance Charity.

In January, Binance launched the “Binance for Wuhan” program, committing a donation of $10,000,000 yan (around $1.4 million) worth of medical supplies to help fight the virus in China.

As Decrypt reported recently, open-source crypto bounties platform Gitcoin’s fifth round of grants also included a $100,000 section dedicated to causes that help fight the coronavirus. The allocation of grants started this Monday, with the company pledging to match donations with $100,000 of its own money.