The Archdiocese of Washington has Begun Accepting Donations in Cryptocurrency

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington began accepting donations in cryptocurrency. This was made possible thanks to the collaboration of The Archdiocese of Washington with the Engiven platform.

Alex Harutunian

Feb 28, 2023 - 1 min read

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is a very large archdiocese with an area of 5,447 square kilometres and was founded in 1947. As of 2020 data, the population of the archdiocese is more than 3 million people, of which more than 660 thousand people are Catholics.

Recently, on their website, a separate block appeared in the section “Smarter Ways to Give”, which is dedicated to how you can make a donation using cryptocurrency. The website says that such donation methods are beneficial both to The Archdiocese of Washington and to people who donate cryptocurrency.

“Why is this a smarter way to give? Cryptocurrency is considered property. Therefore, if you have held cryptocurrency for more than one year before donating, you will be eligible for the itemized charitable deduction for the fair market value of the cryptocurrency at the time of contribution. Further, if you are donating appreciated cryptocurrency, you will avoid capital gains taxes on the cryptocurrency you donate – a win-win!”

The Archdiocese of Washington accepts donations in dozens of different cryptocurrencies. Their collaboration with Engiven provides a convenient way for donations. Engiven is company from California engaged in providing simple cryptocurrency donations for various organizations. According to Engiven website, they cooperate with more than 1000 different organizations.

The Catholic Church is gradually moving towards the adoption of cryptocurrencies. But, according to our observations, the Vatican has not yet commented on its attitude to cryptocurrency donations. As for other faiths, we can highlight Islam for global authorities in Islamic Finance have issued a Fatwa approving the use of IslamicCoin – “Shariah-compliant digital money, designed to create value for the World’s Muslim community.”

Our observations show that cryptocurrency is slowly but surely spreading into all spheres of life, including religion. And this is great, because now worshippers can make donations using convenient and modern technologies. And we continue to observe.