‘Crypto Twitter’ donates $800,000 in cryptocurrency to child who had leukemia
Well-known personalities in the crypto space and hundreds of their followers have donated more than $800,000 in cryptocurrency to a child, known as J.O., who recently overcame leukemia. The donations were sent in a matter of hours this morning.
A day prior, the Twitter account “Dude’s Posting Their [Wins]” had posted a video of the child being applauded as he returned to school after beating leukemia. It went viral, gaining 50,000 retweets and nearly 500,000 likes.
Shortly afterward, a pseudonymous individual with the Twitter handle @Milkman2228 reached out to the child’s father and found out he was struggling with hospital bills. He helped the family set up an Ethereum wallet and shared the address to his Twitter following.
Crypto Twitter personality ‘Crypto Cobain’ soon encouraged his 347,000 followers to join in and send both ether and Ethereum-based tokens to J.O.’s address. (Recently, Cobain and his following have been descending on obscure Twitch streams and giving large amounts of money to the artists running them, sending $200,000 to one guitarist.)
Within a few hours, hundreds of people had joined in, sending everything from stablecoins to tokens for DeFi projects like Curve DAO and Ruler Protocol. Adam Cochran, partner at Cinneamhain Ventures, donated 25 ETH and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried gave 12 ETH to the cause. In total, the account received $517,000 in ether and $292,000 in tokens.
After the donations came in, J.O.’s family set up a Twitter account, posting a picture of him holding a sign that reads, “Thank you Crypto Twitter.” The account then posted a video of him saying, “UpOnly and pump it loomdart.” These are references to Crypto Cobain’s UpOnly podcast and a saying commonly used on Crypto Twitter in relation to market movements.
Cryptocurrency is suitable for donating to charity because anyone who owns some can send it to any other address on the same blockchain. They can also do so without revealing their identity, enabling them to make donations privately. And since cryptocurrency is borderless, it lets anyone in the world take part.
