Ukraine to issue NFTs to fund its military
07:27, 7 March 2022
The Ukrainian government is to issue non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in a bid to fund its armed forces in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
On 3 March, Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also the country’s head of digital transformation, announced that Ukraine would issue NFTs to fund its military.
In his tweet Federov explicitly said there were no plans for a government backed cryptocurrency to be issued.
After careful consideration we decided to cancel airdrop. Every day there are more and more people willing to help Ukraine to fight back the agression. Instead, we will announce NFTs to support Ukrainian Armed Forces soon. We DO NOT HAVE any plans to issue any fungible tokens
— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) March 3, 2022
Pussy Riot backed NFT
The move came after one of the founding members of Pussy Riot said that she had raised $7.15m selling NFTs of the Ukrainian flag via UkraineDAO (digital autonomous organisation).
Federov subsequently tweeted that in just one week $50m had been raised by The Crypto Fund of Ukraine (CFU) and that it was aiming to double this figure by the end of the following week.
He described the response to the CFU and an example of “incredible unity before Putin’s encroachment on freedom and democracy”.
“We WILL win!” he added.
Ukraine issues warbonds
The Ukrainian government has also raised $270m already by issuing war bonds, denominated in local currency, to Ukrainian citizens.
“The proceeds from the bonds will be used to meet the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and to ensure the uninterrupted provision of the state’s financial needs under the war,” the country’s finance ministry said in a statement on LinkedIn.
Federov also praised a move by Paypal to shut down its payment services to Russia. The move was announced by its CEO Dan Schulman in a LinkedIn post on Saturday.
“PayPal supports the Ukrainian people and stands with the international community in condemning Russia’s violent military aggression in Ukraine. The tragedy taking place in Ukraine is devastating for all of us, wherever we are in the world,” Schulman said in his post.
Paypal suspends Russia service
While Paypal’s move is intended to pile the pressure on the Russian government in the wake of its invasion it will also have severe consequences for workers in Russia’s gig economy.
One Russian citizen-based in Siberia told Capital.com ahead of Paypal’s move of her “fear and despair” at the potential for payment systems to be shut down given that she earned her entire income in dollars via Paypal.
“I have taken all the money I could out of the bank and I’ve packed my rucksack, I just want to leave this country,” she said.
Follow the author on Twitter: @aroaringboy
Related topics