Last year’s cryptocurrency market crash may have made headlines and lost fortunes, most recently with the abrupt collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, but there’s another, somewhat counterintuitive story that isn’t being told: crypto philanthropy’s defiant growth amidst this downturn. Millions of dollars in cryptocurrency continue to be mobilized in support of some of the most pressing causes of the day.

Despite the current state of leading tokens like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which have dropped over 60 percent in value from their peak in 2021, publicly available data indicate that the pace of crypto-based donations actually increased in 2022. That’s after a banner year in 2021, when over $300 million in cryptocurrency was donated to charity. While research has shown that economic downturns reliably lead to declines in charitable giving, that is not what’s happening in the case of crypto philanthropy. Crypto asset holders are continuing to give, even if their wallets are a little less full. So why is crypto philanthropy decoupled from volatility in the broader market?

To start, the crypto community is composed of generous individuals who are committed to ideas that revolve around social justice and generally helping others (or creating systems to serve those purposes). The majority of folks that hold crypto are younger, primarily millennials and Gen- Z. It’s been widely reported that millennials are more generous than older generations, giving more than twice as much as Gen- X and boomers. Combine this with the fact that millennials are most likely to hold crypto assets, and there is significant overlap between those in the crypto space and those dedicated to philanthropy—and crypto holders are primed to take advantage of on-chain giving options.

In addition, the particular events of this past year have fueled an unprecedented mobilization of charitable giving across the board. Just as the cryptocurrency market turned downward early this year, Russia invaded Ukraine and sparked a surge in global fundraising in support of humanitarian efforts. Millions of dollars in crypto flowed to nonprofits on the ground, and even more was sent directly to the Ukrainian government after they shared their crypto addresses publicly. A similar boost in fundraising came after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Although traditional forms of giving also spiked around these events, the rise in crypto fundraising was remarkable, given that it had to overcome deprecating prices and overall market disappointment.

What made the rapid mobilization of crypto philanthropy possible? Speed and transparency. Anyone familiar with the nonprofit space knows that speed is not frequently a feature of the typical donation experience. One of crypto philanthropy’s strengths is immediate gift delivery, which appeals to a younger demographic (43 percent of U.S. men ages 18 to 29 say they have invested in cryptocurrency) and benefits recipient organizations. Crypto funds contributed to nonprofits are not only delivered swiftly; they also have a verifiable audit trail, as all donation actions are conducted on the Ethereum blockchain, which is publicly available for examination and immutable (i.e., past activity cannot be altered). This enhanced reliability and transparency are key to crypto philanthropy’s growth.

Another important factor is that crypto donations can be specifically set up to weather fluctuations in the broader cryptocurrency market. Some folks use stablecoins—an asset with its price pegged to a fiat currency like the U.S. dollar. For example, when a donation is received, it can be liquidated into US Dollar Coin (USDC). This particular stablecoin serves two important roles: First, USDC’s creator, Circle, can process the USDC they receive into wire payments directed for nonprofits (1 USDC is always redeemable for $1). This is key as most nonprofits aren’t ready to manage their own digital wallets. Second, USDC’s status as a non-algorithmic stablecoin means that its value doesn’t fluctuate with the market and remains pegged to the U.S. dollar. For example, $5,000 of ETH donated while ETH was at its peak value could have been converted to 5,000 USDC at the time of donation, and those 5,000 USDC would be worth exactly $5,000 today. By comparison, if kept in ETH, that donation would now be worth less than $1,800. In this particular case, the use of stablecoin would have created additional value for the recipient organization and increased any potential tax deduction a donor could have claimed.

Crypto philanthropy is trending upward despite the market downturn. Understanding the potential of crypto philanthropy requires looking past short-term market volatility and recognizing that crypto is here for charity as well as profit. The technology behind crypto can be used to create efficiencies and stability, refining the philanthropic industry for the web3 community, while at the same time creating tools that guard against systematic volatility.

Zach Bronstein is chief operating officer of Endaoment, a platform for managing charitable giving of digital assets that is facilitated using smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain.