[NEWS] Aster, Oasis and others donate 20 million yen to Noto Peninsula earthquake relief efforts

Raising donations with cryptocurrency

Gracone, which operates the cryptocurrency donation platform "KIZUNA HUB," announced on the 26th that the total amount of donations to the "2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake" in collaboration with five Japan-based blockchain projects has reached approximately 20 million yen.

The donations are being donated to charities through KIZUNA HUB in stages.

The Astar Foundation, led by Sota Watanabe, raised donations using the cryptocurrency ASTR and donated a total of approximately 9.2 million yen to the Japanese Red Cross Society. In addition, the popular NFT project AzukiCommunity, led by Yuka Kamogawa, raised donations using Ethereum and donated a total of approximately 500,000 yen to Peace Winds Japan and the Japanese Red Cross Society.

Other companies that have also made donations include Oasys, Backpack, and Fracton Ventures.

The background to the solicitation of donations in crypto assets is the growing presence of crypto assets around the world, such as the first Bitcoin spot ETF being approved in the United States in January this year.

The major advantage of soliciting donations in crypto assets, which have users all over the world, is that overseas remittance fees are much cheaper than existing financial institutions, and even users who do not have Japanese yen can easily make donations. In addition, the blockchain that forms the basis of crypto assets is characterized by high transparency in transactions, which proves that the donations collected will be handled appropriately.

Taking advantage of the characteristics of blockchain, each project began soliciting donations immediately after the earthquake, with the desire to do what they can to support the disaster-stricken areas.

When using the donations, Gracone, which has a track record of donations during the "July 2017 Northern Kyushu Heavy Rains" and the COVID-19 pandemic, provided support such as knowledge through the crypto asset donation platform it operates, and each project selected an appropriate donation destination. The donations were converted from crypto assets to Japanese yen, and the entire amount was donated excluding fees, etc. By accepting borderless crypto assets and tokens as a means of donation, the majority of donations are from overseas. In particular, the AzukiJapan community explained that when they held a charity sale of NFT art to support disaster-stricken areas, almost all of the buyers were overseas users.

Reference:Announcement
Image: Quoted from the announcement

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