TL;DR
- Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, opened a stablecoin donation channel for Nepal’s official disaster relief fund.
- Blockchain for Impact committed $100,000 to the campaign, which converts received cryptocurrencies into Nepalese rupees before transferring them to the government.
- Ripple contributed an additional $300,000 for humanitarian aid organizations, and the Solana Foundation raised $166,946 through an auction of advertising space.
A catastrophic flood triggered by the collapse of a Himalayan glacier on August 26 left at least 750 dead and more than 3,000 missing across Nepal and the Tibetan region of China. Polygon, through its co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, responded to the disaster by launching a stablecoin donation channel directed at Nepal’s Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund, with an initial contribution of $100,000 sent by Blockchain for Impact.
The aid system does not transfer digital assets directly to a government wallet. Instead, it collects USDC through the Ethereum or Polygon networks, converts the funds into Nepalese rupees, and channels them into the official fund through recognized financial pathways. The routing, bridging, and conversion infrastructure is handled by Polygon’s Open Money Stack, while Coinme and Cross River Bank participate as payment channel supports.
Today we're launching a crypto campaign to support the people of Nepal and contribute to the Government of Nepal's Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund.
To help, donate at https://t.co/F3Isx2mKLF.
Stablecoins work best when money has to move fast to people who need it. While… pic.twitter.com/33v45jbgOl
— Sandeep | CEO, Polygon Foundation (※,※) (@sandeepnailwal) September 4, 2026
Engage Nepal: Transparency is Key
Engage Nepal, a US-based nonprofit with 501(c)(3) status, leads the collection and accounting side of the initiative. The organization is headed by former US Ambassador to Nepal Scott DeLisi and acts as the legal entity that links public wallets with the transfer channels accepted by the Nepalese government. Cross River Bank, headquartered in New Jersey, provides the regulated banking component between onchain collection and fiat currency transfer.
Nailwal emphasized that choosing a dollar-backed stablecoin avoids exposure to the volatility of assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum, which is critical when funds need to arrive quickly. However, public blockchain records can only verify movements within the listed wallets; they do not allow independent tracking of how funds are spent once they enter the banking or government system.
Polygon: A Humanitarian Tradition
Polygon’s campaign revives a trajectory that Nailwal began during the COVID-19 crisis in India in 2021, when he created the India COVID-Crypto Relief Fund. That fund received, among other contributions, 50 trillion Shiba Inu tokens sent by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, valued at approximately $1.2 billion at the time.
In June 2023, Buterin and Nailwal directed another $100 million toward medical research and healthcare infrastructure in India. Crypto Relief was subsequently restructured into Blockchain for Impact, the organization now involved in the Nepal initiative.
Nepal, for its part, has not published any cryptocurrency address on its official donations page. Its standard channels include bank transfers, cards, and remittances.