Holidays are the best time of the year to give back, and the rise of cryptocurrency has created more opportunities for charitable activities.This was emphasized during Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in 2021. Raised more than 2.4 million U.S. dollars through cryptocurrency From the non-profit fundraising platform The Giving Block.

As crypto philanthropy becomes a new sub-industry of the crypto economy, some in the industry believe that crypto donations will only continue to increase. Alex Wilson, the co-founder of The Giving Block, told Cointelegraph that the organization raised approximately $4 million in cryptocurrency donations last year and pointed out that it may receive more than $100 million in cryptocurrency donations this year.

According to Wilson, this increase is partly due to the fact that donating cryptocurrencies is more tax efficient than legal donations. “Anyone who donates before December 31 can claim the 2021 tax year deduction. This is a great way to offset some of the gains.” Wilson added that there are currently more than 1,000 non-profit organizations accepting crypto donations through The Giving Block , Some of which include St. Jude, Save the Children, and United Way. “Next year, we have many partners going online, and we expect our growth to accelerate. We estimate that next year we will process nearly $1 billion in donations and cooperate with more than 6,000 non-profit organizations.”

Cryptocurrency donation activities during the holidays

Although many non-profit organizations have begun to accept cryptocurrency donations, it is worth noting that activities around cryptocurrency charities are starting this holiday.

For example, in early December, Upbring Innovation Labs-a Texas-based organization that aims to promote technological advancement in the non-profit sector-launched Give Big TX Crypto Fund. Ryan Park, vice president of innovation at Upbring, told Cointelegraph that the fund is a joint cryptocurrency event in cooperation with 12 non-profit organizations in Texas:

“You can think of it as a’public welfare fund’. The reason here is to make Texas a better place to live. This is also to show non-profit organizations that they can use the new Web 3.0 technology to advance. Overall and In other words, the bigger goal is to make Texas a leader in crypto philanthropy.”

Park shared that the Give Big TX Crypto event is cooperating with organizations including Austin Pets Alive, Big Brothers Big Sisters Lonestar, Catholic charities in Central Texas, and eight other non-profit organizations. He added that the Texas Blockchain Council-a 501 C (6) organization-is also part of the plan because the organization is involved in the development of blockchain in different industries in Texas.

Kelsey Driscoll, senior innovation project strategist at Upbring, further told Cointelegraph that by December 31st, the event will accept donations of more than 40 different types of cryptocurrencies, all of which are promoted by The Giving Block. “When you donate, The Giving Block will automatically convert it to U.S. dollars, so accepting cryptocurrency is as easy as accepting fiat donations, or even easier,” she commented. Driscoll added that the subreddit group r/Bitcoin will match Bitcoin (Bitcoin) Donate to any charity supported by The Giving Block.

Pawthereum is a decentralized community operation project that supports animal shelters. It also launched a charity cryptocurrency campaign this month. Pawthereum’s community manager John Weathers told Cointelegraph that its 12-day crypto donation campaign allows crypto donations for specific projects that help animals in need. Pawthereum project was created as a branch meme cryptocurrency project is unhappy cat coin, Raised $70,000 in crypto funds for Sterling Animal Shelter in Massachusetts.

Recently, Pawthereum raised $25,000 through cryptocurrency donations for Muttville Senior Dog Rescue, an animal shelter in San Francisco that takes care of dogs with special needs. According to Weathers, since the event was launched on December 14, nearly $400,000 in cryptocurrency has been donated.

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This year, irreplaceable tokens or NFTs were also used for donations.Given that the market growth of NFT sales is Expected to reach 17.7 billion U.S. dollars By the end of 2021, the industry will launch one of the biggest crypto charity events of the season. Called right click, give! , This is an auction open to the public on the NFT platform Opensea. The auction will last until December 24, and all proceeds will be donated to the Hope Carpet Charity, which provides warm blankets for the homeless and also teaches kindness to school children.

Mike Fiorito, the co-founder of Blankets of Hope, told Cointelegraph that as an avid NFT collector, he knows exactly how popular the entire NFT community is. Therefore, he believes that there will be more charitable activities focusing on NFT. “In the NFT field, there are a lot of kind people who are making a fortune-big or small-and want to give back,” he said.

Park also pointed out that the Give Big TX Crypto event allows NFT artists to directly cooperate with non-profit organizations to donate the proceeds obtained by minting irreplaceable tokens. “Many artists who are engaged in NFT creation want to collaborate with non-profit organizations. This is an opportunity to do so. We have two NFT projects that donate the proceeds of their mint to our fund.”

Will charity crypto activities become popular?

Although only a few charitable crypto activities currently exist, the benefits associated with cryptocurrency donations may cause mainstream adoption to move forward.

Although U.S. donors No need to pay capital gains tax For any crypto assets they donate to registered non-profit organizations, there are other technical advantages. For example, Pawthereum community leader Nawzad Amiri told Cointelegraph that the transparency and transaction speed provided by the blockchain network is impressive in terms of crypto donations and fiat currencies.

In addition, statistics from The Giving Block Established Cryptocurrency donors may be willing to contribute more to charity, and pointed out that $11,000 is the average cryptocurrency donation scale on The Giving Block.Donation data from Giving USA Established US$737 is the average charitable contribution of Americans in 2020.

Although the benefits may be obvious to some people, education seems to be the biggest challenge hindering adoption.For example, although Texas is growing into One of the largest cryptocurrency capitals in the U.S. Due to its friendly stance on the blockchain and Mining capacity, Park shared that it has been challenging for non-profit organizations in Texas to participate in Give Big TX Crypto activities:

“We contacted about 60 non-profit organizations and worked with a total of 12. This may seem like a success, but there is still a long way to go in educating the world about the potential of crypto philanthropy.”

Another challenge worth mentioning is that although NFTs may appear to be ideal donation assets, there are uncertainties regarding tax relief. Fiorito explained that he is still trying to determine whether donating NFTs is considered a tax exempt event. “This is a cloudy area because we are still in the early stages of the NFT field,” he commented. Due to this uncertainty, right click and give! Auction also accepts cryptocurrency donations through The Giving Block.

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Challenges aside, it is clear that crypto philanthropy has opened a new door of opportunity for a generation eager to give back. For example, Park pointed out that many donors to non-profit organizations that work with Give Big TX Crypto events are over 70 years old. according to According to statistics from The Giving Block, the average age of crypto users is 38 years old, as Wilson added:

“The people who donate here are people who live and breathe Web 3.0 or who hold cryptocurrency for a long time. Now a large part of them is the existence of the opportunity to educate these people.”