Binance, Brock Pierce Donate $1M to Puerto Rico's COVID-19 Fight

Brock Pierce’s Puerto Rican nonprofit has teamed up with Binance to buy $1 million in personal protective equipment to help fight coronavirus in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.

Integro Foundation – run by one-time bitcoin billionaire Brock Pierce who in 2018 tried to make Puerto Rico into a crypto utopia – donated 44.5 BTC to Binance Charity on April 23. Binance Charity announced Thursday that it was matching that donation 2:1 at a valuation of $333,333 USD.

The foundation's Executive Director Antares Ramos-Álvarez told CoinDesk that Brock Pierce was underwriting the entirety of Integro's 44.5 bitcoin donation. He said that the supplies would go to "a mix of public and non-gubernatorial organizations."

Read more: Binance Donated $2.4M in Coronavirus Medical Supplies; CZ Pledges More

"The target for the masks is for frontline medical workers," he said.

Binance representatives told CoinDesk that the gear would go to relief efforts in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Bahamas.

"This initiative is our way to support the true heroes, the first responders and medical workers, with the tools required to protect themselves as they serve others during this crisis,” Brock Pierce said in a press statement.

Pierce’s San Juan-based 501(c)(3) became an IRS-recognized nonprofit in 2018. Puerto Rican tax forms indicate that Integro launched in early January 2015. The nonprofit has no public history of any financial activity. It reported zero revenue, assets or expenses in 2015, 2016 and 2017 filings with the Internal Revenue Service. More recent filings were not immediately available. Integro’s tax form point of contact James Santos did not respond to a request for comment.

See also: 11 Lawmakers Urge US Treasury to Consider Blockchain for COVID-19 Relief

Binance Charity collected the donation under its Crypto Against COVID-19 campaign. That month-old effort has raised $3.7 million in crypto through public donations and Binance pledges, including the Integro/Binance match deal. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao previously estimated that Binance’s total contributions will add up to “somewhere around $5 million.”