The country raised over $135 million in crypto this year.
Earlier this month, the war-battered nation of Ukraine sold CryptoPunk #5364, the highest-valued donation it received this past March during a fundraising appeal to counter Russian aggression. An anonymous buyer paid 90 ETH, or approximately $100,000, for the non-fungible token or NFT.
The Ukrainian government has amassed more than 330 NFTs, many of which are donations from a sympathetic, web-savvy private citizens plugged into the Web3 ecosystem. Browsing the collection, one sees donations of NFTs ranging from Russian President Vladimir Putin sporting a black eye with the colors of the Ukraine flag stamped on the bruised eye to scenes of war.
Alex Bornyakov, the country’s deputy minister of digital transformation, said that the country raised over $135 million in crypto this year — including $6.75 million by selling a Ukrainian flag NFT — but that donations to the Aid for Ukraine fund have since "subsided."
CryptoPunks are a collection of rare pixel art images, produced by an algorithm and sized at 24×24. In March, Ukraine's CryptoPunk was valued up to $260,000, but saw its value decrease substantially due to a price drop since then.
Yuga Labs, the developers of CryptoPunks, recently announced that it was hiring the head of NFTs at Christie’s, Noah Davis, as Brand Lead for CryptoPunks. He quickly reassured users that he would not pursue “rushed utilities or thoughtless airdrops” for the prominent NFT collection.
Sabrina Toppa is a writer at TheStreet Crypto based in Asia. She has written for The Guardian, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other publications. Follow her on Twitter @SabrinaToppa. For tips: sabrina.toppa@roundtable.io.
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