The Malta Community Chest Fund (MCCF) could not accept the “bogus donation” offered by cryptocurrency exchange Binance due to reputational concerns, President Myriam Spiteri Debono has confirmed.
Speaking outside the San Ġwann Primary School during a visit to promote the BOV Piggy Bank Campaign in aid of the MCCF, the President explained why the charity distanced itself from a donation made through Binance’s Blockchain Charity Foundation, which is now worth $39 million.
“In the last years, there was always this question mark regarding these people… regarding whether they were in good faith,” said Spiteri Debono.
She said she doubted whether Binance had received clearance from Malta’s financial authorities.
She also added that internationally, “they do not have a good name” and that she and the board had worked hard to protect the good reputation of the Community Chest Fund.
“It would be also unfair on other donors who are in good faith, who abide by the laws,” she said.
Spiteri Debono warned that the donation risked dragging the charity into a prolonged dispute.
“It was a saga that was going to be never ending, and then was no end in sight and no way we could envisage that this money would be spent in the normal procedure of the Malta Community chest fund.”
The disagreement centred on Binance’s insistence that the funds be transferred directly to patients’ crypto wallets, bypassing the MCCF’s usual disbursement process.
However, the MCCF refused to share patient data with Binance, accusing the company of attempting to renege on prior agreements and effectively dissolve its charitable foundation.
“We went back to the day before they came forward with their bogus donation. We lost a lot of time and had a lot of headaches during this period,” Spiteri Debono said.
She emphasised that at no point did the MCCF have control over the funds.
In a rare public difference of opinion, Prime Minister Robert Abela later appealed for the MCCF to reconsider, saying it upsets him that Malta stands to lose such a large sum of money.
The saga dates back to 2018, during Malta’s ill-fated push to become a “blockchain island”, when Binance pledged a crypto donation worth $200,000 to cancer patients via its charitable arm.
By 2021, the funds remained in limbo, locked in a legal dispute over how they would be administered.
An agreement quietly signed earlier this year officially withdrew the pledge, with concerns over Binance’s global reputation reportedly driving the decision.
Binance has faced a series of damaging allegations. In 2022, a Reuters investigation reported the platform had been used to launder $2.35 billion in illicit funds. A separate probe by Times of Malta and Amphora Media linked the platform to a murdered Turkish-Cypriot gambling boss who moved over $29 million through Binance.