COVID-19 relief fund for India raises over $2.2 million in donations of crypto assets

• A crypto-based COVID-19 relief fund for India has raised donations worth over $2.2 million.
• It was set up by Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal and has received donations from industry leaders like the Ethereum creator.
• COVID-19 cases keep surging in India, which is struggling to control the virus and treat patients.

A COVID-19 relief fund for India has raised donations in crypto assets worth over $2.2 million. Since being set up by Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder of Ethereum platform Polygon, the relief fund has received donations from industry heavyweights like Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, who donated tokens worth almost $650,000.

Last weekend, Nailwal tweeted he had to do something to help the COVID-19 situation in India, where cases and deaths have been rising consistently and many patients are not getting the treatment they need due to a lack of resources.

Nailwal said he had ways to get oxygen, food and vaccines to those in need in the country and asked people to donate tokens issued on the Ethereum network. His first tweet about the relief fund has been shared over 3,200 times at time of writing and has captured the attention of crypto industry leaders.

This includes Buterin, but also includes names like former Coinbase CTO and current board member at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz Balaji Srinivasan, who donated $50,000 and said he would donate more for every retweet he got, adding up to $100,000 to his original donation.

On Tuesday, the relief fund's website stated it had raised crypto assets worth $2,201,618.70. The vast majority of this has been in ether and ERC-20, another token that operates on the Ethereum network, but supporters can donate in most cryptocurrencies. All assets will be converted into US dollars.

Despite the country considering a ban on owning, trading or otherwise using digital assets, the crypto sector has hugely grown in the country and trading volume and owned assets are accelerating.

The COVID-19 situation in India has escalated over the past weeks. The current seven-day average of new registered cases was 330,745 and average daily deaths are almost 2,500. Last week, the country reached the highest number of daily cases any country has recorded since the pandemic began.

Vaccination levels are low at around 11%. International aid is being sent by various countries, including the United States and United Kingdom, where large proportions of the population have been vaccinated already.

From images and first person accounts it's likely that the actual figure is a lot higher. Many patients cannot get the healthcare they need and are struggling to access food and other basic necessities.