Crypto firms jointly pledge donating $9 million worth fund to Turkey, Syria

Binance, OKX, KuCoin, Bitfinex among others have taken up measures to donate and raise funds for the relief work after the series of deadly earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria.

Following the series of apocalyptic earthquakes and aftershocks in Turkey and Syria, crypto firms including Binance, OKX, KuCoin and Bitfinex have collectively pledged $9 million as a part of relief measures for those affected. Addressing the difficulty of people in resorting to the traditional banking in the aftermath of natural calamity, Binance airdropped its BNB tokens worth $100 to each of its customers. Another crypto trading platform BitMEX announced contributing to Turkey's Red Cross organisation through its recently held trading competition.

Rescuers and residents search through the rubble of collapsed buildings in the town of Harem near the Turkish border, Idlib province, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. With the hope of finding survivors fading, stretched rescue teams in Turkey and Syria searched Wednesday for signs of life in the rubble of thousands of buildings toppled by a catastrophic earthquake. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)(AP)

“Identification of the users will be based on Proof of Address (POA) completed before Feb 6th in 10 cities where the earthquake has had significant impact, including: Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Diyarbakır, Adana, Osmaniye, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman, Malatya and Hatay," Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a recent blog post.

Turkish musician Haluk Levent also teamed up with a charity organisation Ahbap to develop a multi-signature wallet built on BNB blockchain to raise funds. Similarly, blockchain firm Avalanche also joined the fundraising drive and donated $1 million in its AVAX tokens.

Bitfinex, along with Keet, Synonym and Tether, also jointly pledged five million TRY tokens towards “immediate humanitarian relief and recovery efforts and will seek ways to provide continued support towards helping Turkiye rebuild for the future”.

Video: Rescue teams look for survivors in Turkey, Syria; quake death toll cross 9,000 mark

Southeast Turkey and northern Syria received a series of earthquakes, with magnitude touching as high as 7.8 on Richter scale, followed by aftershocks on Monday. Turkey's disaster management agency said the country's death toll had risen to 6,234 as more bodies had been recovered. Over 8,000 fatalities have been reported, including those from neighboring Syria.