The cryptocurrency community is coming together to fight COVID-19. It is doing so with a range of initiatives to raise money for pandemic support. It is also contributing to charities that are on the front line of the battle. The most recent effort was a huge online poker tournament that was open to anybody and featured a lot of well-known cryptocurrency names.

The Giving Block paired with high-profile cryptocurrency firms and blockchain companies to promote a campaign with a goal of raising $100,000. It started with a matching pledge of $50,000 each from Vitalik Buterin and Gitcoin for each of the donations made in ETH or DAI.

While the worldwide stay at home orders continue, the Giving Block's Alex Wilson said he wanted to do more than just ask for money. They had been looking for a way to celebrate the cryptocurrency community's response. It turns out a lot of the big players in cryptocurrency are fans of poker, which makes a lot of sense.

Jon Lister came up with the idea of an online poker tournament as a fundraiser. Some of the participants included Charlie Lee, who is the founder of Litecoin, Charlie Shrem, who is a founding member of the Bitcoin Foundation and Peter McCormack, who is the host of the What Bitcoin Did podcast. Some other participants included Joey Krug, who is the Co-Chief Investment Officer at Pantera Capital, Jason Lau of OK Coin and Ed Moncada, who is the CEO of Blockfolio. Moncada is also a professional poker player.

Lee planned to donate any and all winnings back to charity. Some other cryptocurrency and blockchain firms also pledged money. The Electric Coin Company added a $5,000 pledge, and Waves said it would match up to $10,000 in donations. Bigbird also promised $10,000 in matched donations. Some of the other donors include Atomic Wallet, Unstoppable Domains, Binance, Ark, 99Bitcoins, Ripple Labs, Axiom Finance, Donut App and Coinfloor.

The entry fee to get into the tournament is $100. It will be streamed live on at least one internet channel. Each firm's and participant's Twitter accounts will have additional updates.