White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, declined to answer questions from a reporter on whether United States president Joe Biden will return the $5.2 million in campaign donations previously given by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. “Will the president return that donation?” Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller asked in a Dec. 13 press briefing, “does he call on all politicians who got campaign donations that may have come from customer money to return those funds?” “I'm covered here by the Hatch Act,” Jean-Pierre responded, adding she was “limited on what I can say.” ”Anything that's connected to political contributions, from here …

A watchdog group has demanded an investigation into Sam Bankman-Fried's political donations, claiming the former FTX CEO “admitted” to donating tens of millions to Republicans under the table in violation of federal law. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed the complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Dec. 8, citing comments made by Bankman-Fried in a Nov. 16 interview with cryptocurrency vlogger Tiffany Fong which was released via Youtube on Nov. 29. CREW suggested in their complaint that wealthy donors often take advantage of the Citizen United ruling and evade federal disclosure laws by using …

The attempts of mainstream media to water down the frauds committed by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) did not fare well in convincing the crypto community and entrepreneurs. Instead, the misinformation campaign collided with Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s drive to position Twitter as "the most accurate source of information." The world is yet to overcome the shock after witnessing the legal leniency awarded to SBF for misappropriating users’ funds and shady investment practices via trading firms Alameda Research and FTX. Will Manidis, the CEO of ScienceIO, a healthcare data platform, pointed out that SBF made the “highest ROI trade of …

Everstake, a blockchain firm that partnered with the Ukrainian government to launch a donation website amid the country’s war with Russia, has pushed back against online rumors and conspiracy theories that the platform was used for politically motivated money laundering. Ukrainian government officials partnered with Everstake, Kuna and the now infamous crypto exchange FTX to launch Aid for Ukraine in March following the Russian military’s invasion. According to the platform, crypto users and Ukraine supporters sent roughly $60 million in crypto and fiat aimed at supporting Ukraine’s armed forces and other humanitarian causes. However, with FTX’s liquidity issues and bankruptcy, …

Charities accepting crypto donations are setting themselves up for an entirely new demographic of funders — who just so happen to be one of the most giving, according to charity organizations. Alex Wilson, the co-founder of The Giving Block, a crypto donation platform providing back-end support to charities, told Cointelegraph that the crypto community is still a market many charity organizations have nointeracted with. The top charity organizations in the world by funds received including United Way Worldwide, Feeding America, and UNICEF. All three of them accept cryptocurrencies as a means of donation. The Giving Block co-founder said the crypto …

Crypto billionaire and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried have admitted to being a "significant donor" to both sides of the political spectrum ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Days ahead of the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 8, SBF told his Twitter followers that he has given contributions to electoral campaigns on both sides of the fence. The crypto billionaire said that he has been “supporting constructive candidates across the aisle to prevent pandemics and bring a bipartisan climate to DC,” as well as “working with them to support permissionless finance.” SBF added that working with FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan …

The hype around nonfungible tokens (NFTs) may be fading, yet a number of organizations continue to implement Web3 initiatives. Nonprofit organizations and activists, in particular, have begun implementing nonfungible token projects to help fundraise and generate awareness for certain causes. While these methods are still new, NFT projects for philanthropy have been met with relative success. A recent report from crypto donation platform The Giving Block found that nonprofits using The Giving Block received more than $12.3 million dollars in cryptocurrency donations from NFT-related charitable giving initiatives in 2021. The report further noted that charitable organizations using NFTs are presented …

The legal team behind nonfungible token firm DataVault Holdings has requested an advisory opinion from the United States Federal Election Commission on using NFTs for fundraising efforts. In a Sept. 21 letter to FEC acting general counsel Lisa Stevenson, DataVault’s lawyers proposed sending NFTs as “souvenirs” to individuals who contributed to political committees, as well as giving the token holder the option to use it for promoting a campaign “strictly on a volunteer basis and without any compensation.” The NFT firm requested the FEC provide guidance on how it may operate as a commercial vendor — issuing the tokens to …

Crypto conferences have continued to take the world by storm, being the epicentre for revolutionary concepts, gathering places for headline speakers, and entertainment for the wider population, with side events featuring the world's most-known celebrities. With so much attention being drawn to these events, many organizations have recognized their impact in not only promoting cryptocurrencies themselves but also in demonstrating the asset’s utility in other industries. Consider some examples. In the most recent 2022 Grammys, the world saw a prestigious music award ceremony also become the location of thought-provoking discussions on NFTs. Not to mention, The World Economic Forum's Davos …

A new nonfungible token collection is aiming to give a substantial contribution to a charitable foundation supporting Ukrainians following Russia's invasion. Blockasset says the NFT release has been organized in collaboration with world heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk, who is from Ukraine himself. The sale comes ahead of Usyk's world title defence against Anthony Joshua on August 20. There are 2,000 one-of-one NFTs of unique artwork, and they feature quirky designs by the world-renowned artist Dosbrak — chronicling some of the key moments from the boxer's undefeated professional career. When the invasion began, Usyk had joined Kyiv's territorial defence battalion …

It took cross-border sanctions and an escalating war for the Ukrainian government to realize the importance of cryptocurrencies, as it witnessed uninterrupted monetary aid in the form of crypto and nonfungible tokens (NFT). In a continued effort to aid the needs of its citizens and the nation, the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Alex Bornyakov, announced the sale of a CryptoPunks NFT for 90 Ether (ETH) that was received as a donation on April 20, 2022. Breaking news on crypto donations: #CryptoPunk #5364 has been sold for 90 ETH. It's over $100K. Few months ago this NFT was …

Sergey Vasylchuk, CEO of Ukraine-based decentralized staking provider Everstake, has said the company will continue to hire crypto professionals amid a market downturn and ongoing conflict in the country. In a Wednesday Twitter thread, Vasylchuk said Everstake had hired 30 people since the Russian war against Ukraine started in February, and the firm still had more than 10 positions in marketing and development to fill. According to the CEO, Everstake is “not firing anybody” and had made preparations for a “special fund” to tide the firm over in the event of a bear market. “An important part of doing business …