Ukraine is reportedly funding its war against Russia by appealing to the global crypto community. This, as the nation will soon introduce non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in order to help support financially its armed forces.
Mykhailo Fedorov, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, recently confirmed that the NFTs will be issued. He also noted that the nation would not be moving forward with the airdrop, which was meant to reward donors by handing out virtual tokens directly into their crypto wallets. The “free gift” strategy has been used frequently as a type of promotional tool in order to encourage the use of digital tokens as well as donations to an initiative.
Fedorov had noted via Twitter:
“Every day there are more and more people willing to help Ukraine to fight back the aggression. Instead, we will announce NFTs to support Ukrainian Armed Forces soon.”
Notably, the Russian military is a lot bigger than that of Ukraine’s forces and Ukrainian officials have been trying to become more creative so they can maintain solid resistance to Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s unprovoked attacks.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, has provided weapons to people who might be willing to fight, including individuals that might have been incarcerated.
Ukraine has acquired over $46 million in crypto donations, according to data from Elliptic, a blockchain analytics company.
Ukraine’s leadership confirmed that they would be issuing NFTs in order to secure funding for their ongoing war against Russia.
Some of those donations have been made following the appeal of an airdrop for people or organizations which made a pledge by 11 AM EST this past Thursday. But the airdrop got canceled shortly before the deadline for making donations. Ukraine’s leadership has now introduced the crowdfunding effort (on February 26), which has come only days after Putin sent Russian arms forces into Ukrainian territory.
Most of the donations were Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH), Elliptic revealed. However, some people have also sent NFTs or digital collectibles. As reported by Newsweek, one particular NFT had been valued at around $300 and a CryptoFund NFT valued at more than $200,000 was reportedly donated.
Gavin Wood, an Ethereum co-founder and also the founder of Polkadot (DOT), also pledged $5.8 million to these efforts.
As widely reported, the details of the airdrop had been few, and certain social media users had expressed concerns that it could become a rug pull, which is a term now commonly used for a crypto-related scheme when the project’s team abruptly abandons an initiative and also take with them the investors’ money.
Others noted via Twitter that they’d be okay with it even if it were a rug pull since the donations would still (probably) be helping Ukraine’s ongoing struggle and fight against Russian invasion.
Some people also pointed out that carrying out the airdrop with digital tokens using images to show the beauty of Ukraine might also motivate others to donate as well.
On Wednesday, Fedorov had confirmed that they began taking meme coins, while noting via social media that “even memes can support our army and save lives from Russian invaders.” Dogecoin founder Billy Markus noted that individuals trading DOGE are not “usually rich” but a “caring and passionate bunch.”
Markus also mentioned that those “who want to help will offer what they can” and that he now “hopes the country can heal and rebuild stronger after all of this.”
At present, it remains unclear what Ukraine’s NFTs might look like, when they will be unveiled, or where exactly people can acquire them. But the crypto donations to Ukraine are still increasing.