Tonga Volcano Eruption Receives Bitcoin Donations — What Impact Will This Have on the Crypto Market?

Last Friday, the South Pacific island nation of Tonga experienced a massive volcanic eruption followed by a tsunami. Following this, Lord Fusitu'a, a former Tongan parliamentarian, shared a Bitcoin wallet address on social media, indicating that donations to Tonga could be sent to that address.

As of January 21, the address had raised over 0.48 Bitcoin, with 362 transactions totaling approximately 120,000 RMB in value, as shown in the chart below:

Data source: tokenview

While the absolute amount of donations is significantly lower than that of traditional mainstream international organizations, Bitcoin and other digital assets have nonetheless provided a new model for Tonga's post-disaster reconstruction. Compared to the complexity of the traditional financial system, Bitcoin can offer faster, broader, and more direct assistance. Therefore, in addition to the Bitcoin wallet address for donations, Lord Fusitu'a also stated that Tonga plans to replicate El Salvador's move to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, "which could happen as early as November or December 2022."

If you follow Bitcoin's development history, you will find that every major crisis seems to become an opportunity for Bitcoin to grow stronger. Whether the crisis is a natural disaster, a man-made calamity, a technical bug, or a global economic crisis, Bitcoin consistently achieves leaps in development through these crises — gradually evolving from a niche product for geeks to an asset accepted by mainstream society, increasingly penetrating a growing number of communities while also driving the overall growth of the entire crypto market.

Why Is Every Crisis a Boost for Bitcoin's Rise?

Tonga's volcanic eruption has attracted enormous global attention, with many countries expressing willingness to provide aid to Tonga. However, due to the pandemic, assistance may be delayed. Relative to the provision of essential supplies, financial assistance may be even more important, because the domestic living and economic collapse triggered by the massive volcanic eruption in Tonga can only be fundamentally resolved through financial assistance and reconstruction.

Due to the complexity of the traditional financial system, international mainstream society's economic aid to Tonga may also be postponed. For instance, other countries providing economic assistance to Tonga would inevitably involve linking between two different monetary systems, and under the current international currency settlement system, time and cost consumption is nearly unavoidable.

Apart from government-organized assistance, ordinary people in other countries who wish to donate to Tonga face even more issues — they may not even be able to find a channel to do so, and ultimately the effort just fizzles out. However, Bitcoin can perfectly solve this problem. If an ordinary person wants to donate to Tonga, they can do so as long as they have Bitcoin, with no restrictions on time or location, and without worrying about exchange rate fluctuations or losses.

Of course, it's not just individuals — institutions, companies, and other organizations can donate just as conveniently, as long as they recognize and own Bitcoin. What Tonga needs to do is even simpler: it only needs to establish a receiving account. This saves donors and recipients a significant amount of manpower, material resources, and time. Lord Fusitu'a has now established the receiving account, and the number of people donating Bitcoin has continued to grow since its creation.

The reasons Tonga accepts Bitcoin donations can be clearly understood from the analysis above: convenience, speed, uniformity, and low cost. This is determined by Bitcoin's nature. Essentially, Bitcoin is a fully peer-to-peer electronic cash system, a payment system independent of organizations, enabling people to trade and transfer funds on a peer-to-peer basis without going through any financial intermediary.

Of course, an even more important reason is that Bitcoin's value is increasingly recognized by the world. From the perspective of value, consensus is the greatest value. As of now, the number of Bitcoin holding addresses has exceeded 40.18 million, and the number of people who have held or participated in trading Bitcoin has long exceeded 100 million, with an ever-growing number of new participants entering the space. These participants transcend national borders, ethnicities, and religious beliefs — one could say a strong global consensus has already formed to a certain extent, much like gold, which is why Bitcoin is also called "digital gold."

The above discusses the key reasons Bitcoin has been able to rise through every crisis since its inception. Other contributing factors include Bitcoin's inflation resistance and safe-haven attributes, as well as the development of infrastructure and the overall prosperity of the crypto market.

However, looking back at Bitcoin's path of rise and development, it is precisely because Bitcoin has turned crises into opportunities every time that these attributes of Bitcoin have been recognized and discovered — the two are mutually reinforcing and complementary.

For example, the ongoing collapse of the Turkish lira since last year has generated enormous interest among Turkish citizens in Bitcoin and other digital assets, with most investors choosing Bitcoin and other digital assets to hedge against inflation. Currently, the number of people in Turkey who own cryptocurrency trading accounts has exceeded 5 million.

Another example: the US-Iran conflict in 2019, driven by safe-haven sentiment and speculative demand, led a large number of investors to choose Bitcoin, triggering a significant Bitcoin rally at the time. There are also the 2016 Greek EU-exit crisis, the September 2013 US government shutdown, the March 2013 Cyprus crisis, and the 2011 US debt ceiling crisis — every time such a crisis occurred, Bitcoin attracted more attention and experienced a surge and breakthrough.

Over the past two years, as the global economy has been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial crisis has spread once again, this represents another major test for Bitcoin since its birth, and may also become another significant opportunity for Bitcoin's development.

What Impact Will This Have on the Crypto Market?

If you ask how much impact Tonga's acceptance of Bitcoin donations will have on the crypto market, there may not be much that can be said right now, unless Tonga subsequently replicates El Salvador's move to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. However, we can draw comparisons from historical events to explore the potential impact of this development.

Every valuable attribute of Bitcoin that has been discovered and recognized stems from the occurrence of some "crisis event." These instances of Bitcoin turning crises into opportunities have each brought Bitcoin a "new course," continuously broadening the path that the entire crypto market travels.

For example, the notorious dark web marketplace "Silk Road" once circulated over 9.5 million Bitcoin, accounting for 80% of Bitcoin's circulating supply at the time, earning Bitcoin the moniker of "dark web dollar." Although the Silk Road was later shut down by the US FBI, Bitcoin's value as a payment and transfer medium became even more widely known. Bitcoin's characteristics — anonymity, decentralization, and convenient cross-border transfers — were gradually discovered and articulated, eventually becoming the "rules" of the entire crypto market industry.

Given Bitcoin's founding context (the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis), the fundamental driver behind Bitcoin's rapid development remains the opportunities presented by the performance of traditional financial markets. For instance, the collapse of the Turkish lira and the Cyprus crisis led to the expansion and discovery of Bitcoin's inflation-resistance properties and the ability to control asset ownership.

This round of economic crisis caused by the pandemic, leading to global money printing, has seen major institutions enter the space in force. New funds have brought enormous innovation and projects, benefiting the entire crypto market: innovating financial models and establishing a brand-new decentralized financial system; completing mainstream adoption, becoming an essential asset allocation for institutions and traditional investors; driving the development of new internet trends based on the metaverse and Web3……

In truth, Tonga is not the first to eat this crab by accepting Bitcoin donations, and this event itself has not attracted more attention outside the crypto market. However, "a wave starts from a ripple, and the wind rises from the edge of the reeds." Perhaps when we look back at this event years from now, we will see that it represents just one more step forward on a "new course" — much like in the age of maritime geographical discovery, when a ship sailing westward across the Atlantic pressed on one nautical mile further.

Disclaimer

This article may contain product-related content that does not apply to your region. This article is intended solely to provide general information and makes no representation as to any factual error or omission. This article represents the author's personal views only and does not represent the views of OKX. This article is not intended to provide any advice, including but not limited to: (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) offers or solicitations to buy, sell, or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal, or tax advice. Holding digital assets (including stablecoins) involves a high degree of risk and may be subject to significant price fluctuations, and may even become worthless. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is appropriate for you based on your financial situation. Please consult your legal/tax/investment professional regarding questions specific to your circumstances. Any information contained in this article (including market data and statistics, where applicable) is provided for general reference purposes only. Although all reasonable precautions have been taken in preparing such data and charts, we accept no responsibility for any factual errors or omissions expressed herein. © 2025 OKX. This article may be reproduced or distributed in its entirety, or excerpts of 100 words or less may be used, provided that such use is non-commercial in nature. Any reproduction or distribution of the full article must prominently state: "This article is copyrighted © 2025 OKX, used under permission." Permitted excerpts must cite the article title and include attribution, e.g., "Article title, [author name if applicable], © 2025 OKX." Some content may have been generated or assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Derivative works and other uses of this article are not permitted.

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