Crypto companies rush to help earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria – Blockchain Beyond Borders?

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 sent shock waves across Turkey and Syria on Monday. The incident has been labeled the “deadliest in a decade”.

Caused by a 100 km rupture of the East Anatolian fault, the epicenter was 26 km east of Nurdagi. Only the third earthquake on the strike-slip fault to measure above 6 on the Richter scale since 1970.

So far, the authorities have confirmed 3,700 deaths. Expectations for that number to rise are rife as survivors battle frigid winter conditions.

How is the crypto community responding?

Twitter has rallied around the disaster. And crypto Twitter is no exception as influencers rush to offer support and prayers.

A Turkish crypto trader has even started asking for crypto donations. Claims they will be sent directly to local friends by NGOs.

A smart move, Giving Block says $11,000 is the average crypto donation. This far surpasses traditional fundraising campaigns.

The CEO of Binance, CZ, (the world’s largest exchange) was quick to react to the platform.

After briefly expressing his sadness over the incident, CZ made a surprise announcement. CZ is working on solutions.

Things move quickly, and details are sparse. But it can be confirmed that there is now a team at Binance working to provide disaster relief, according to the announcement.

CZ added that he had four meetings today (Tuesday, February 7) to push things quickly and get help where needed.

What are CZ & Binance doing to help humanitarian relief?

This is not the first time Binance has jumped into international events.

Acting through its philanthropic arm – Binance Charity – the leading crypto exchange, has become an actor in a multitude of theaters.

Especially in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Specifically in response to 12,000,000 displaced or refugees.

Binance offered an initial $10 million to aid international humanitarian relief efforts. This saw the exchange as a funding partner for a handful of local NGOs on the ground in the conflict zone.

This was followed up with a much more innovative ‘solution’. It may help shed light on what CZ can do in response to the Turkish earthquake.

The ‘Binance Refugee Cards’ was launched in April 2022. The card acts as a passport that gives vulnerable people access to the exchange and philanthropy work.

This makes it possible to offer cash-based interventions (CBI). These are intended to provide short-term financial relief with the intention of “buying time” for people to start rebuilding their lives.

Over 15,000 people were provided with Binance Refugee Cards and given access to the Binance ‘Crypto-To-Cash’ program.

In reality, this meant 75 BUSD per month, for a three-month period.

This could likely form the backbone of Binance’s disaster relief offer to Turkey.

Binance has been working a lot on “blockchain for good” since 2018.

This has included working with CARE to help Sudanese refugees and working in Afghanistan to help retrain Afghan women to access technical jobs.