Bitcoin Donations to a $16B Charitable Fund Are Soaring

Bitcoin is red hot these days. The price of the cryptocurrency is up about 140 percent since the beginning of this year. And now it looks like bitcoin's popularity among the charitable is also on the rise.

According to the recently released Fidelity Charitable 2017 Giving Report, donations made in bitcoin to Fidelity Charitable, a $16 billion donor-advised philanthropic fund, grew to about $9 million in the first half of 2017. That's about $2 million more than what bitcoin donors contributed in 2016.

The report paints a picture of the nearly 150,000 people who donate to the fund in order to illustrate trends in charitable giving, according to Fidelity Charitable's site.