How Ukraine Leveraged Crypto for Donations Against Russian Attacks

Time Stamp: March 7, 2022 7:26 AM
Source Node: 1888527
  • Cryptocurrency is helping to fund important causes in the world.
  • However, some see a difference between the amounts raised in auctions and fundraising efforts.
  • The recent ‘rug pull’ of the Ukrainian government is one such case.

Cryptocurrency is now being used to fund important causes across the world. In fact, at the moment, cryptocurrency is the leading method of aid in the Ukrainian effort. As traditional methods struggle to keep up with sanctions and physical barriers, new tech now comes into play.

UkraineDAO is the initiative that led these fundraising efforts. The launch included an NFT of the Ukrainian flag with 100% of the proceeds going to the “Come Back Alive” fund.

In response to the initiative, the Ukrainian government began to offer its own wallets for people to donate to. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov published BTC, ETH, and TRON-based TRC-20 USDT wallets on Feb 26. This allowed donors to send funds to the government directly to support the struggling Ukrainian population.

The addresses collected around $15 million in a week but weren’t nearly enough to what ConstitutionDAO raised in the same timespan. The idea that an auction outdid a fundraising attempt for a war-torn country did not highlight crypto in the best of terms.

Again, in response, the Ukrainian government announced an airdrop to the crypto wallets of donors of Ukraine. This announcement sparked interest and the government received $7 million in crypto from donors right after. Similarly, the government saw their Ethereum-based donations double to $20 million right after the announcement.

However, that all changed when Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced that they were canceling the airdrop. Instead, Fedorov announced that they would release NFTs to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Consequently, this decision drew controversy. People claim that the government might have just made the best rug pull ever– including publications and Twitter accounts. Some give the government the benefit of the doubt that they simply didn’t know the gravity of their own announcement.

One thing for certain after all these events: Cryptocurrency has been a vital part of funding important causes. There might be some discrepancies between the motivations of donations  – some might say it’s fueled by greed – but the fact remains that causes are being funded by crypto.

At the time of writing, donors have given Ukraine $70M in cryptocurrency donations.

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