Crypto is now fastest growing donation for Fidelity charitable
Crypto is now fastest growing donation for Fidelity charitable
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have proved quite charitable, at least as far as Fidelity Charitable is concerned.
Announced today, the global charity revealed it has received $69 million in cryptocurrency donations in 2017, making it the fastest-growing asset type accepted by the firm. According to Fidelity Charitable’s annual report, the funds, which included donations in bitcoin and ether, came from 169 different donors.
The donations represent a tenfold increase since the organization started accepting bitcoin in late 2015, a figure that grew 140 percent faster than the other options (such as real estate, shares of LLCs and bags of grain) that Fidelity Charitable accepts as donations, according to the company’s vice president Amy Pirozzolo.
But if that comes as a surprise, perhaps it shouldn’t – donations have been one of the key use cases from cryptocurrency since the beginning.
In 2013, non-profit BitGive began helping other non-profits accept donations in bitcoin and shortly after, a handful of major names announced they would trial the idea. The following year, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase launched its own service designed to support non-profits.