Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck has launched Kumamoto Japan Earthquake Bitcoin Relief Fund to help victims of the disastrous earthquake that hit Kumamoto prefecture on Saturday.

The project is based on the Coincheck’s bitcoin donation platform. So far, it is the only cryptocurrency charity in the country, claims the exchange.

More than 33 BTC have been collected for Kumamoto, and the amount is constantly growing, with 918 people having contributed so far. Donations can be made by scanning a QR code on the charity’s website. The organisation notes that the donations are anonymous and no receipts are issued for tax exemption purposes.

The money collected by the fund will be transferred to Peace Wind Japan, a non-governmental organisation engaged in emergency humanitarian relief and assistance all over the world. PWJ has deployed its search and rescue team that is currently working in Kumamoto prefecture and set up emergency shelters in Mashiki town.

“PWJ was the first reliable organization that started a donation drive for Kumamoto earthquake victims. We wanted to start the donation drive as quickly as possible, so we choose PWJ,” said Kagayaki Kawabata, Coincheck Business Development Lead.

The amount of money collected for Kumamoto victims is much larger than the donations made for the rest of Coincheck’s nine live donation projects. None of them has raised more than 0.2 BTC. These projects cover a wide range of issues, including both lasting problems, such as malaria, and recent disasters, such as last week’s earthquake in Equador.

The earthquake that hit Kumamoto city on Saturday at 01:25 local time (Friday 15:25 GMT), reached the magnitude of 7.3. According to the latest estimations, 42 people have been killed and 150 000 are made homeless. It is considered to be the most severe earthquake in Japan since the 2011 catastrophe which caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

Andrew Levich