Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal has launched a stablecoin donation channel for Nepal’s official disaster fund, with Blockchain for Impact pledging $100,000 to the campaign.
Sandeep Nailwal said in a Sep. 4 X post that he had opened a cryptocurrency donation route for people seeking to support relief and reconstruction in Nepal.
Rather than sending digital assets directly to a government-controlled wallet, the system collects cryptocurrency and converts the proceeds into Nepalese rupees. The local currency then enters the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund through recognized financial channels, according to Nailwal.
Polygon’s Open Money Stack provides the routing, bridging and conversion infrastructure behind the campaign. Coinme and Cross River Bank are also supporting the payment pathway, while Blockchain for Impact has pledged $100,000.
The campaign website says donors can contribute USDC through Ethereum or Polygon. Engage Nepal, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, handles the collection and accounting process before delivering the converted funds to Nepal’s official disaster fund.
By accepting a dollar-backed stablecoin, the system avoids exposing the donated amount to the price swings associated with assets such as Bitcoin or Ether. Nailwal described stablecoins as suitable for cases in which money must reach people quickly, although the final transfer still relies on conversion services and conventional banking infrastructure.
Public blockchain records can show when a donation enters a listed wallet and when the assets move to another address. Nailwal’s announcement did not provide a schedule for converting the contributions or state when the government fund would receive each batch of proceeds.
The fundraising drive follows severe flooding caused by a glacier collapse in the Himalayan region on Aug. 26. Ice, rock, mud, and other debris entered the mountain river system, sending floodwater through settlements and damaging roads, bridges, and power infrastructure.
Authorities had reported at least 750 deaths and more than 3,000 missing people across Nepal and China’s Tibet region by Aug. 30. Nepal accounted for 734 of the reported deaths and 2,498 of the missing, according to figures cited in a recent relief report.
The Red Cross estimated that more than 90,000 people had been affected. Flooding also isolated some communities from food, clean water, and emergency services, while hundreds of workers were believed to be trapped in damaged hydropower tunnels.
World Central Kitchen said local restaurant partners were providing meals in the Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts. Mercy Corps, which has worked in Nepal since 2005, began coordinating food, water, and sanitation assistance with local organizations and government agencies.
Ripple committed $300,000 on Aug. 29 to support the work of both relief groups. The San Francisco-based blockchain company did not say whether XRP, its RLUSD stablecoin, or a conventional payment method would be used for the contribution.
Elsewhere in the crypto sector, the Solana Foundation and NFT marketplace Mallow sold nine advertising spaces on Solana’s X profile image through an auction. Bidders used USDC, and the organizers reported that the sale generated $166,946.50 for Nepal relief.
Under the auction process, Mallow was responsible for receiving the proceeds, moving them into USDC on Ethereum, and transferring the funds to Engage Nepal. The U.S. nonprofit would then deliver the money to the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund.
For donors in the United States, the Polygon-backed campaign uses several organizations operating within the country’s financial and nonprofit systems.
Engage Nepal operates as a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) organization and is led by former U.S. Ambassador to Nepal Scott DeLisi. Its role connects public crypto wallets with a legal entity that can convert and transfer funds through channels recognized by Nepal’s government.
Cross River Bank adds a regulated banking component to the arrangement. The New Jersey-based institution provides financial services to fintech and payment companies, placing a conventional bank between the onchain collection system and the fiat transfer.
Coinme, another U.S. participant, operates cryptocurrency cash and payment infrastructure. Nailwal did not break down the duties assigned to Coinme or Cross River Bank, though he identified both as supporters of the campaign alongside Polygon’s Open Money Stack.
Nepal’s government has not listed a cryptocurrency address on its official disaster-relief donation page. Its established options include bank transfers, cards, remittance services, and international payment systems, which means the campaign serves as an intermediary for donors who hold digital assets.
The structure also limits what blockchain records can prove. Onchain data can verify transactions involving the public donation wallet, but it cannot independently show how converted funds are spent after they enter a bank account or government relief program.
In response to the disaster, Nepalese officials have warned the public against unauthorized payment codes and personal accounts claiming to collect relief money. Donors using cryptocurrency face a similar verification issue because a public wallet address does not, by itself, confirm who controls it.
The Nepal campaign extends Nailwal’s involvement in relief projects that began during India’s COVID-19 crisis in 2021. At the time, he created the India COVID-Crypto Relief Fund to collect digital assets from donors around the world.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin later sent 50 trillion Shiba Inu tokens to the fund. The contribution was valued at about $1.2 billion when the transfer occurred, although converting a donation of that size required managing market liquidity, price volatility, and local rules.
In June 2023, Buterin and Nailwal directed another $100 million toward COVID-19 research and medical infrastructure in India. Under the arrangement, Crypto Relief supplied $90 million in USDC, while Buterin contributed the remaining $10 million, as previously covered here.
Crypto Relief was later reworked into Blockchain for Impact, the organization now contributing $100,000 to the Nepal campaign. BFI has concentrated on healthcare, biomedical research, and public-health programs in India.
As crypto.news reported in March 2025, BFI had allocated over $90 million to healthcare and research programs while pledging another $200 million for future projects. Its plans included work with more than 15 medical colleges, support for 50 research projects, and programs involving over 600 researchers.
Nailwal said at the time that combining blockchain transparency with collaborative funding could help ensure “every dollar is accounted for and maximized for impact.”
In his Nepal announcement, Nailwal also cited his personal connection to the region. Born in Kumaon in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, which borders Nepal, he said his maternal family came from the same area. Communities across the India–Nepal border have long maintained family, cultural, religious and commercial ties commonly described as roti-beti ka rishta, or a relationship built through shared livelihoods and marriage.
