The crypto donation platform "The Giving Block" publishes its annual report for 2021. It shows that crypto users have never been so keen to donate as in the last year. The donation activity also reflects the trends in the ecosystem.
2021 was a bombastic year for cryptocurrencies - and also for The Giving Block , a platform to raise cryptocurrencies for charity. This is shown in the recently published annual report .
The Giving Block provides fundraising organizations with a widget that allows visitors to their website to donate cryptocurrencies. The Giving Block also organizes various fundraising campaigns. In total, almost $70 million was raised over the course of 2021. Compared to the previous year, this is an enormous increase of 1,600 percent.
The average size of the donations is more than 10,000 dollars. Since average donations are usually driven by large outliers, it's likely that there were some very, very generous donations.
A mirror of the ecosystem
The willingness to donate reflected some of the trends in the crypto scene over the past year.
For example, The Giving Block managed to raise more than $12 million through NFT projects. This confirms that NFTs were probably the 2021 trend.
In addition, Ethereum overtook Bitcoin for the first time in the sum of donated values with $30.79 million. Bitcoin was in second place at just under $26 million, followed by stablecoins like USDC (4.7 million) and DAI (2.2 million). A year earlier, these had played no role.
This was surprisingly followed by the cryptocurrencies Flow (FLOW, 1.4 million) and Solana (SOL, 1.2 million). Also of note was the volume of donations in Cardano (ADA, 408,000) and Litecoin (LTC, 339,000).
Among the 70 accepted cryptocurrencies and tokens, a handful more made it past $100,000: Bitcoin Cash, Algorand, Filecoin, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Tezos, and Uniswap. For most others, donations have remained very small, often under $1,000.
The Generosity of Crypto Investors
2021 was a breakthrough year for the platform. The record volume of donations exceeded all expectations.
The reason given by The Giving Block is the bull run, i.e. the unprecedented increase in prices, which shaped the year more than anything else. It's safe to assume that among those who made fortunes out of nothing in 2021 with shitcoins, DeFi tokens and NFTs, many were very keen to donate; also among those who have multiplied their assets, which were already considerable at the beginning of the year, through early investments in Ethereum or other coins. In part, one could assume that they buy their way out of the guilty conscience through donations, having earned a golden nose at the expense of other investors.
But the integration of stablecoins into the widget and the expansion of accepted cryptocurrencies to more than 70 are also reasons for The Giving Block.
The decisive factor, however, may have been the massive increase in charities raising donations in cryptocurrencies by integrating The Giving Block widget. In 2020 there were around 100, and by the end of 2021 there will be just over 1,000.
The numbers prove the charities right: Crypto users have been extremely generous. While an average online donation is little more than $100, average crypto donations have been around 100 times that. Of course, this should also be related to the fact that many crypto investors became incredibly rich in 2021.
Therefore, The Giving Block estimates that in the future every charity will accept crypto donations and will also try hard to find donors in the crypto scene.
The peak at the end of the year
The volume of donations increased significantly over the course of the year. While it was still around $300,000 in January, it jumped to more than $20 million in December alone.
The Giving Block sees the reason for the peak at the end of the year in the success of the “bag season”. This is a fundraising campaign that the organization begins each year at the end of November. This alone brought in a good 2.4 million dollars.
But new features of the platform should also be a reason. At the end of the year, The Giving Block integrated a few more cryptocurrencies, such as USDC and other stablecoins. This significantly improved the conditions for donors: switching from USDC to Ether, even for the purpose of a charitable donation, would be a taxable event. By accepting USDC, the platform spared donors this. Dollar tokens have quickly become one of the most donated cryptocurrencies.
Another successful currency accepted in November surprisingly became the Shiba Inu . It was the fourth strongest cryptocurrency in December. But here, too, one can suspect a kind of indulgence at work, because Shiba Inu experienced one of the most wondrous and extreme price increases in the ecosystem in 2021.
What crypto users donated to
In addition, The Giving Block has introduced new donation models. For example the “Cause Funds” in November. These bundle non-profit organizations that pursue similar thematic goals.
The Cause Funds did relatively well, raising a good $400,000. A Crypto Adoption Fund launched at the same time played a little more with $450,000.
The Cause Fund also does a good job of showing what crypto users donate to: Education ($98,000), Animal Welfare ($76,000), Environmental Protection (60,000), Military, Veterans & First Aid (46,000), and Technology & Science (44,000).
Of course, this fund represents only a relatively small part of the total donations received: 23 percent in December. The remaining 77 percent flowed more decentralized — through the websites of the organizations that use The Giving Block's widget.
Nevertheless, one can assume that the ranking of the topics of the cause funds is relatively representative of the crypto scene's willingness to donate.
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