It was during the third day of the invasion that Ukraine went out on Twitter and asked for financial assistance - both in traditional currency and in cryptocurrency.
In one week, the country received crypto donations worth $ 50 million.
It is now planned to publish digital works of art in the form of NFTs to further raise money for its defense.
According to Gunnar Harrius, financial journalist who runs the podcast "They call us crypto", the fact that more people turn to crypto systems in times of crisis may be due to the currency not being tied to a bank or national borders.
- It is a way to take value with you across national borders, you can take it basically anywhere where you have access to internet connection, says Gunnar Harrius.
A way to avoid sanctions?
While the system may bring benefits to Ukrainians who are on the run, there is concern that it will be used by Russia to circumvent economic sanctions.
A scenario that Gunnar Harrius does not consider very likely.
"These blockchains would probably not be able to handle the enormous amount of money that would flow into these systems in order to be able to handle a country's economic export and import policy," he says.
In addition, he believes that cryptocurrencies are more traceable than many people think.
To buy and sell bitcoin, for example, the user needs to connect to a regular bank card.
- Bitcoin is extremely traceable.
All transactions are public and authorities have become very good at tracking down any illegal transactions.
It is not anonymous - in that phase sanctions work as usual.
Relative rise
Despite an increase in cryptocurrencies in Russia and Ukraine in connection with the war, a relatively small part of the countries' population still uses digital currencies.
- It is not the case that every single Russian or Ukrainian has gone and bought crypto now, but it is significantly more than a few months ago and significantly more than it was a year ago.