The federal government of Ukraine introduced right now that its Aid for Ukraine crypto fundraising marketing campaign offered a donated Cryptopunk NFT and raised over $100,000 to assist its battle efforts towards Russia.
Cryptopunk #5364 was donated to the Ukrainian crypto fund in March. Yesterday, the fund offered the NFT to an nameless purchaser for 90 ETH. NFTs are blockchain-based tokens that present possession over digital or bodily belongings.
Alex Bornyakov, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation—the workplace liable for overseeing the nation’s wartime crypto fundraising—introduced the sale in a tweet right now.
Ukraine began accepting crypto and NFT donations in late February, shortly after Russian troops invaded the nation. Since then, the nation has reportedly raised over $135 million in crypto via cryptocurrency donations and gross sales of donated NFTs.
In early March, a crypto group raised $6.75 million for the nation’s battle effort by way of the sale of a single NFT of the Ukrainian flag. Just a few weeks in the past, the Ukrainian rap group Kalush Orchestra, this yr’s Eurovision champions, auctioned off their trophy from the music competitors to raise almost $1 million in ETH for the fund.
The crypto fund helps buy non-lethal provides for Ukraine’s navy, ranging from bulletproof vests to medical supplies. The funds aren’t really held or spent by the Ukrainian authorities, which solely endorses and oversees the challenge. Ukrainian crypto trade Kuna operates the fund’s treasury, which is used to assist fund the purchases of volunteers.
Ukraine’s wartime embrace of crypto has served as a case examine for the potential advantages of using crypto in geopolitical conflicts the place fiat foreign money (reminiscent of U.S. {dollars}) might be troublesome to maneuver shortly.
It has additionally highlighted potential drawbacks, as properly. The Worldwide Financial Fund warned in April that Russia could skirt economic sanctions by mining cryptocurrencies—though U.S. Treasury Secretery Janet Yellen says the observe hasn’t been widely observed.
Additional, crypto and NFT donations are totally uncovered to the present crypto bear market. Ethereum’s value has plummeted almost 70% within the final ten weeks, inexorably affecting the fundraising potential of NFT collections like Cryptopunks constructed on Ethereum.
The Cryptopunk that offered yesterday generated a little bit over $100,000 in wartime fundraising for Ukraine; that very same quantity of ETH would have been price over $267,000 on the day the NFT was donated in March.
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