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The Ukrainian government today announced it has canceled its planned crypto airdrop and will instead launch a non-fungible token (NFT) collection to raise funds to support its military.
Ukraine Cancels Crypto Airdrop Plans
Recall that Fedorov previously announced that the country will be giving free airdrops to reward people who donated cryptocurrencies to support the country in its ongoing war against Russia.
The airdrop that is supposed to be distributed on Thursday might have been canceled due to a third party trying to hijack the process. However, the prime minister did not give a specific reason for the change of plans and only said the move was made after careful thought.
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister, revealed this via a tweet on Thursday.
“After careful consideration we decided to cancel the airdrop. 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. We DO NOT HAVE any plans to issue any fungible tokens, he tweeted.
Ukraine Turns to Crypto
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the latter’s government, NGOs, and volunteer groups have been soliciting funds via crypto to support its military, and the crypto community has responded positively.
A recent data conducted by blockchain analytics firm, Elliptic reveals that since the start of the Russian invasion, Ukraine has raised over $54 million via more than 102,000 crypto donations which includes $5.8 million donation by Polkadot founder Gavin Wood, and a CryptoPunk NFT worth over $200,000.
The world is now aware of crypto’s potential as Ukraine keeps benefitting and relying on the asset class during these tough times.
Seeing that crypto’s decentralized nature gives users the ability to bypass restrictions or sanctions by any government or financial institution, Fedorov called on mainstream crypto exchanges last week to block addresses of Russian users who might see crypto as an escape plan.
This has also been a major concern for regulators in the European Union (EU) who see Russia using crypto to evade sanctions. Recently, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde asked regulators in the region to quicken MiCA regulations in order to prevent Russia from evading new sanctions.