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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Who is Yevheniy Zaifter: an entrepreneur trying to combine strict engineering pragmatism, chaotic Ukrainian business, and philosophical reflections on social media, or a holder of a Russian passport who steals money from charity?
In the Ukrainian and global tech space, the name Yevheniy Viktorovych Zaifter stood in the shadows of Everstake for a long time. An engineer by education and an IT entrepreneur by vocation, he chose a path of non-public management. Zaifter is a co-founder and key shareholder of one of the largest decentralized non-custodial staking providers in blockchain networks, Everstake. The company, which he built with Serhiy Vasilchuk, serves over 600 thousand users worldwide and handles digital assets worth billions of dollars. Despite the colossal scale of the business, Zaifter consciously avoids cameras and conference appearances.
Yevheniy Zaifter
If you look at the list of his companies: Zavali Group, Ground Solutions, Falkor, Green Yubs, Zavali Parts… it becomes interesting: is Zaifter building a business empire or simply playing Monopoly, where the main goal is to open as many firms with unusual names as possible? When an entrepreneur has more legal entities than successful public-space cases, one involuntarily wonders: is this diversification of risk or just an attempt to confuse the tax authorities?
Everstake and the global crypto market
Zaifter’s core activity is building digital infrastructure. The Everstake platform operates as a decentralized validator for dozens of leading blockchain ecosystems, including Solana, Ethereum, Cosmos, and Cardano. The essence of the business is ensuring uninterrupted operation of servers (nodes) that validate transactions in the networks. Staking providers like Everstake manage assets worth billions of dollars and earn multi-million commissions for validating transactions.
Everstake
In the decentralized finance market, reputation is everything. Therefore Zaifter closely monitors every publication about himself and his companies. Yet despite media cleanups around the figure of Yevheniy Zaifter, there exist several parallel realities.
Shadowy “roof” and crypto wallets of drug syndicates
Zaifter has repeatedly been associated with administering infrastructure of large darknet marketplaces and illegal drug shops (often referencing the closed special services’ ‘Hydra’). Investigators claim that powerful Everstake servers and nodes could have been used to “mixer” and launder dirty crypto proceeds of international drug cartels. Also, by rumor, Everstake was used to legitimize the proceeds of the ‘Khimprm’ group. According to this version, legal staking is only a front masking enormous shadow flows.
To be objective, it should be noted that no official investigations by SBU, National Police, or international cyber units have yet charged Zaifter with assisting criminal structures.
Million-dollar philanthropy and help to the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Officially, Yevheniy Zaifter’s financial flows are directed toward strengthening Ukrainian defense capability. From the first days of the full-scale invasion, the businessman, together with partners, transformed Everstake into a financial ram for helping the army. Together with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, they launched the Aid For Ukraine fund, which attracted more than 60 million dollars in cryptocurrency. Zaifter personally donated enormous 9 million dollars of his own money to the needs of the armed forces.
“Schemes” with state money under the cover of charity
However, these events also had another dimension with a thick corruption trail. In 2022 year, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Everstake, KUNA, and FTX participated in the Aid For Ukraine initiative, which raised cryptocurrency for helping Ukraine. The official link between Everstake and the fund was confirmed by the Ministry of Digital Transformation as of 14 March 2022.
Subsequently questions arose about the transfer of 150 BTC and 2 500 ETH, which at that time were estimated at about $12,2 million. The funds were allegedly intended for procuring strike drones through the American company NEANY Inc.
Drone purchases via Aid For Ukraine
According to the published investigation version, the contract for the procurement was not properly documented, and part of the funds after passing through FTX did not return. In the specific episode of drone procurement, journalists call the unrecovered 53,7787 BTC and 2 048 ETH — about $4,67 million by their historical estimate.
In media materials, there is mention of criminal proceedings No. 12025000000000407, qualified under part 5 of article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — possible appropriation of property on a particularly large scale.
Russian passport and double life in Vienna
In 2022 year, rumors circulated in the Ukrainian IT sector corridors. Zaifter and his partners were accused that declared millions in donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine were a way to “wash” reputations and obtain government loyalty to avoid tax checks. It was rumored that part of crypto donations from foreigners ended up on private management accounts through complex conversion schemes.
Rumors about the possession of a Russian passport by Yevheniy Zaifter did not arise from nowhere. The primary source journalists clung to was the presence of a name in databases. Russian registries contain information about the individual entrepreneur (IE) Zaifter Yevheniy Viktorovych, registered in the Novosibirsk region of Russia. Sources claim that the businessman obtained Russian citizenship to facilitate capital outflows via offshore structures and the purchase of elite real estate in Austria.
The largest wave of publications about the Russian passport emerged in March 2022 year. Then Everstake, together with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the crypto platform Solana, launched the official state fund Aid For Ukraine to collect crypto donations for the army. It was then that the suspicion first arose that perhaps state funds of Ukraine are controlled by a person with a Russian passport.
Spiritual coaching and a world crisis
Recently, Yevheniy has begun to actively share in video formats reflections on “psychological resilience in times of instability” and “preserving oneself during a world crisis.” Oh no, are we losing a techie and gaining another Instagram philosopher? When successful engineers start recording “raps” with deep sighs about the fate of the universe, somewhere a systems analyst cries. Yevhen, drop the esoterica and mental health talk to professionals, return to numbers and graphs — you were much more convincing there!
And in his blogs, Yevheniy loves to talk about “management based on precise measurable data” and “prioritizing simple and reliable solutions.” It sounds incredibly cool in business school lectures. But honestly: in Ukrainian realities, “precise measurable data” usually get crushed by the next power outage, customs delay, or sudden blocking of tax invoices. I’m curious, by what engineering formula is the stress coefficient calculated when your “simple and reliable solutions” collide with the domestic bureaucratic machine?
So even by his own social media, Yevheniy Zaifter is a classic example of a Ukrainian IT guy who earned his first money, read two books about systematic management, and decided he could run everything—from drone supply to people’s souls in times of global crisis.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item " Євгеній Зайферт: IT-підприємець і філантроп чи ширма для відмивання брудних криптодоходів та власник російського паспорта". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: DosieNews.Info.
