The world turns to Web3 in a time of crisis

February 08, 2023

A massive earthquake hit southeastern Turkey along the Syrian border on Feb. 6, which has so far caused the death of more than 7,000 people. The quake had a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, which is internationally categorized as a major earthquake.

Two of the largest aid efforts in Turkey — AFAD Turkiye, the government agency for such disasters, and the NGO Ahbap, led by philanthropist Haluk Levent — have been at the forefront of organizing the influx of aid.

Levent announced that his organization has opened up crypto addresses to accept aid in various forms of digital currencies.

Refik Anadol, a Turkish artist and art director, also started a crowdfund via an Ethereum address, for which he will transfer the collected funds to both AFAD and Ahbap.

Within the Web3 space, various companies in the industry have stepped up to provide help, be it in the form of crypto or fiat donations or even physical aid.

Crypto derivatives trader Bitget and exchange Gate.io each announced that it would commit 1 million Turkish liras (~$53,000), while Bitfinex, Keet, Synonym and Tether pledged 5 million liras (~$265,500).

Local Turkish crypto exchange Bitci sent an aid truck to the earthquake zone while announcing that all commission income for the month of February will be donated to Ahbap on behalf of the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquake. Icrypex announced coordination efforts with AFAD and Ahbap.

BtcTurk told Cointelegraph that, aside from donating 6 million liras ($318,000) to the Ahbap and Akut organizations, the Turkish crypto exchange sent 1.2 million liras ($62,000) worth of clothing aid in coordination with local governments.

The Turkish branch of ByBit and OKX have both committed to send $100,000 and 1 million liras (~$53,000) in aid, respectively.

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