Donors Turn to NFTs in Support of Ukraine’s Defense Against Russian Invasion

As Russia’s Onslaught on its neighbour continues to worsen, donors are turning to NFTs and cryptocurrencies in support of Ukraine.
Image source: Aljazeera

Quick take:

  • Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been met with strong opposition across the world.
  • Football, F1, and the West have all rejected Putin’s uncalled for attack on its neighbour.
  • And now, donors are turning to cryptocurrencies to drum their support for Ukraine amid the worsening conditions.

As attention turns to the devastating conditions that the people of Ukraine find themselves in amid Putin’s attack, the cryptocurrency world has not been left behind. Donors and well-wishers are turning to NFTs and crypto to try to express their support for Ukraine. 

Non-fungible token (NFT) traders are showing their support for Ukrainian artists amid the raging war brought by Russia.

Ukrainian artists reported seeing their NFT sales skyrocket in the last 24 hours after spreadsheets compiling NFTs from Ukrainian artists were shared on social media. One collector tweeted:

Another Ukrainian fleeing Kyiv to Odesa posted artistic images of herself depicting emotional reactions to the ongoing attacks. After converting them to NFTs and posting on OpenSea, she immediately received bids for her works, which she shared on Twitter.

Since then several NFT marketplaces have also demonstrated solidarity with the war-torn nation.

Famous NFT artist Beeple has created a digital art piece dedicated to Ukraine. The artwork shows scathed Ukrainian flag still flying high in the midst of a war-torn city.

Elsewhere, a founding member of the Russian rock band, Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has launched a decentralised autonomous organisation dubbed UkraineDAO in a demonstration against the invasion. 

The band has collaborated with Trippy Labs and PleasrDAO in this initiative that seeks to raise money for Ukraine. Tolokonnikova, tweeting under the UkraineDAO handle wrote

“We are minting the Ukrainian flag because it’s not about any specific artists or aesthetics – it’s about something much bigger than all of us, it’s a pure gesture of solidarity.”

The DAO is minting 10,000 NFTs of the Ukrainian flag with the proceeds going to the NGO Proliska and the Return Alive Foundation.

NFT and crypto donations have been on the rise since last year amid the widespread adoption of Web3 products. In a recent report by the crypto donations platform, the Giving Block showed that NFT project investors donated $12.3 million last year. The reports also showed that crypto donors averaged more than $10,000 per donation compared to fiat currency donors who gave $128 on average.

Late on Friday, a group of prominent NFT enthusiasts announced an initiative called RELI3F to support Ukraine. The group consists of 27 celebrated NFT artists including Sartoshi, Ravi Vora, and Allison Harvard. Announcing the collection launch on Twitter, Andre Wang tweeted:

They will release 200 art pieces through a blind minting auction with funds from the primary sale going to Ukraine’s relief fund.

Ukraine made cryptocurrencies a legal tender recently amid fears that Russia was going to launch an attack. 

“Ukraine is already in top-5 countries on cryptocurrency usage. Today we made one more step forward: Parliament adopted the law on virtual assets! This will legalize crypto exchanges and cryptocurrencies, and Ukrainians could protect their assets from possible abuse or fraud,” said Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on Twitter.

The decision seems to have come timely given the number of people that have offered their support through crypto and NFTs.

Reports emerged last week that bitcoin donations soared to Ukrainian volunteer and hacking groups, with some supplying equipment to government forces.

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