A Ukrainian flag NFT raised more than $6.7 million for the country’s defense as cryptocurrency donations continue to pour in after the Russian invasion.
Organized by UkraineDAO, the initiative was supported by a Russian activist and member of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot. Thousands of users bid on the digital image.
The fundraiser comes just days after the Ukrainian government announced via Twitter that it would accept cryptocurrency donations. The country’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov also called for donations online, while urging cryptocurrency exchanges to block Russian users.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, allow buyers to prove ownership of a virtual asset – in this case a digital version of Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag.
Although the NFT was produced as a single edition on the Ethereum blockchain, bidders were able to take shared ownership, with contributions ranging from 0.00001 ether (less than $0.029) to 44 ether ($127.60), according to with the PartyBid NFT selling platform.
The sale attracted more than 3200 individual contributions in 72 hours, totaling just over 2258 ether – equivalent to about $6.7 million at the time the auction ended last Wednesday.
Organizers said all funds will go towards “Come Back Alive”, a campaign in support of Ukraine’s armed forces.
Donors will receive tokens proportional to the contributor. Like shareholders, they will be able to vote on future NFT sales, although Ukraine said it hoped to “discourage” equity trading, urging owners to keep them “as a reminder of our world’s ongoing humanitarian needs.”
According to UkraineDAO’s website, members had considered creating unique artworks, but decided that the NFT “should be a symbol of the Ukrainian people, rather than focusing on a particular artist or aesthetic.”
Nadya Tolokonnikova, a member of Pussy Riot who has collaborated with platform NFT CXIP, digital art studio Trippy Labs and online collective PleasrDAO, said in a statement that the Ukrainian flag “unites us”.
“We purposely avoided adding our own artwork to this release. In a way, it’s our strong conceptual artistic statement,” said Tolokonnikova, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics.
“People can have different aesthetics, but here it’s not about the color we prefer. It’s about coming together to save lives.”
Cryptocurrency has emerged as a major source of financial support for the Government of Ukraine as Russia intensifies attacks on major cities. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, which tracks cryptocurrency donations made to the Government of Ukraine and NGOs supporting the country’s military, recorded more than 72,000 transactions worth about $45.6 million last Wednesday.
On its website, UkraineDAO said that a “revolution” could not be made with conventional currencies, as there are “many ways for traditional funds to be intercepted or held by traditional institutions, governments and other factions, with the intention of controlling, harming or simply transferring funds without transparency”.
Source: CNN Brasil
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