The Los Angeles wildfire incident caused damage to some encryption companies and user wallets, and prediction market-related bets were controversial.

Comprehensive editor: Felix, PANews

On January 8, local time, a severe wildfire broke out in Los Angeles and its surrounding areas, burning thousands of homes and burning over tens of thousands of hectares. So far, the fires have burned more than 15,000 acres and forced the evacuation of nearly 180,000 residents, with an additional 200,000 people under evacuation orders.

The rapidly spreading fires not only threaten millions of California residents, but also several cryptocurrency companies and members of the crypto community. In fact, many people have lost their homes and belongings, including hardware wallets.

Southern California Cryptocurrency Companies and Users Damaged

Wildfires have burned more than 15,000 acres in Southern California, including major areas such as Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Pasadena. In addition to residences, several cryptocurrency companies were also affected.

The Santa Monica Bitcoin Office staff is located just south of the raging Palisades and Sunset. Several Swan Bitcoin staff members who were hosting the Pacific Bitcoin Conference in Santa Monica were also located directly south of the fire.

Blockchain service provider BlockDaemon is headquartered in Los Angeles, as is SuperVerse, another crypto game developer. Blockchain-based ID and tokenization company Spring Labs is headquartered in nearby Marina del Ray. The companies reported significant losses, including hardware wallets containing cryptocurrency assets being destroyed.

Some companies are luckier. So far, there has been no fire at the Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles, a cultural landmark in Los Angeles. Crypto entertainment venues DaBank (Hawthorne) and Jungla (North Hollywood) also survived the wildfires.

However, the wildfires affected not only crypto companies, but also cryptocurrency users. Some residents lost their crypto wallets in the wildfires. Crypto KOL Monty said on the X platform that his 70-year-old aunt lost her apartment in the fire in Los Angeles. Most of her savings were in cryptocurrency, but she lost her wallet and seed phrase and had no backup. According to comments, her wallet mainly contains Bitcoin.

Nonprofits are accepting cryptocurrency donations

To provide assistance to those affected, several local charities and non-profit organizations providing assistance are accepting cryptocurrency and stock donations.

Cryptocurrency donation platform The Giving Block has launched an “Emergency Response Fundraiser” to donate to nonprofits actively assisting Los Angeles wildfire relief efforts. The fundraiser allows the public to choose from seven non-profit organizations to donate cryptocurrency.

These include the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, First Responders Children's Fund, Global Empowerment Mission, San Diego Humane Society, All Hands and Hearts and Direct Relief.

During the donation drive, the platform encourages the public to help in any way they can by donating cryptocurrencies, stocks, DAF (Note: Donor advised funds, donors can immediately set up a DAF account to donate to organizations that provide food, shelter and medical services. Get tax breaks and have advice on how to use your funds) or card.

Givepact, another cryptocurrency-focused donation site, shared details of foundations that accept crypto-asset donations.

These include Baby2Baby (note: a charity that provides diapers and clothes to poor children), the Wilderness Firefighters Foundation, the California Fire Foundation, the Los Angeles County Animal Care Foundation and the California Community Foundation.

The platform said the public can donate to these charities and non-profit organizations in more than 30 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Avax, Dogecoin, and more.

Betting on prediction platforms is accused of being “sick”

It is worth mentioning that a certain prediction platform was questioned for its "sick" predictions during the wildfire event. Many users on the platform used the wildfire event to create various prediction markets to predict the spread of the fire, when it would be controlled, and the potential consequences. Politicians resign. “Betting on wildfires is sick,” one Some users even worry that in order to bet successfully, gamblers may be stimulated to cause more fires.

In response, the platform issued a disclaimer saying: "The devastating Palisade Fire is one such event where platforms can provide valuable real-time answers to those directly affected in a way that traditional media cannot."