Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has donated 17.5 BTC, worth over $150,000, to the collaborative hackerspace Noisebridge. 

According to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, Noisebridge, a hackerspace that has been around for over a decade, received a 17.5 BTC donation from Kraken on Feb. 27. 

The donation was made in response to a tweet by John Backus, a participant and supporter of Noisebridge, explaining the collective would be forced out of its San Francisco space due to a failed inspection. Backus said it would cost $150,000 to install a new sprinkler system in order to satisfy building code requirements. 

Kraken’s official Twitter account responded to Backus’s tweet with a link showing a bitcoin transaction of 17.5 BTC to cover the cost of the new equipment. 

Backus said in an interview with CoinTelegraph that he couldn’t believe the tweet at first. 

I sent my tweet asking for donations the afternoon of Feb. 26. By the end of the night, I was excited to see that we had raised $200. I woke up the next morning and checked Twitter and then saw the tweet from the Kraken account.

He continued, 

There were about thirty inputs and fifty outputs associated with the link, so I couldn’t tell how much money there was at first. I then saw the Noisebridge address with 17.5 Bitcoin in it. I wasn’t sure if this was real at first. I went on the Noisebridge Slack channel and another member confirmed that it was indeed real.

Backus, who has been visiting Noisebridge since 2013, says the collaborative operates entirely on funds from donors.

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