Ukraine Will Auction Off Received NFT Donations
Ukraine is preparing the launch of a web page where it would auction off around 300 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) the country has received in donations.
Among the donated NFTs, there is a CryptoPunk, which was sent to the country’s official Ethereum (ETH) address in early March, according to Etherescan transactions. Alex Bornyakov, deputy minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, said he expects the CryptoPunk to fetch about USD 200,000, according to Bloomberg.
Bornyakov noted that the majority of other donated NFTs are not valuable. More specifically, he said between 5% and 10% of the donated NFTs could be valuable.
The Web page could go live as soon as this week, and would also feature 10 NFT collections created by independent firms that have pledged all the proceeds to Ukrainian causes. The sales are slated to take place on major NFT marketplace OpenSea.
“We just want to show how many people are doing this and how they are inspired by those events, and how they want to help Ukraine,” Bornyakov was quotes as saying.
The Ukraine government started accepting crypto donations within the early hours of the Russian invasion, starting with bitcoin (BTC), ethereum, and tether (USDT). However, the country has since extended the list to include a total of 14 cryptoassets.
As reported, in mid-March, Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, in cooperation with crypto derivatives exchange FTX and staking platform Everstake, launched the country’s crypto fundraising site called Aid For Ukraine.
Per the website, the community has raised more than USD 60m, which includes BTC 432, ETH 9,068, DOT 433,967, SOL 7,626, and USDT 9.2m, among others.
In late March, the Ukraine government launched the “Meta History: Museum of War,” a collection of war-themed NFTs meant to help the country raise additional funds to support its army and civilians. Notably, the country sold 1,282 of these NFTs on the first day, raising ETH 190 (USD 640,705).
According to Bornyakov, raising funds with NFTs is “even more impactful” than just asking for crypto donations. “Then you can store a piece and it’s going to be with you until you decide to sell it. It’s still out there, it still reminds people about what happened,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Stellar Development Foundation, a non-profit organization founded to support the development and growth of the open-source Stellar (XLM) network, has pledged to donate crypto to help Ukrainian refugees.
Reportedly, the foundation has raised USD 20m and will give USD 300 worth of crypto to 66,000 Ukrainians. According to Bornyakov, people with children and low-income residents will get priority and residents would be able to cash out in MoneyGram locations.
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Learn more:
– Crypto Helps Ukraine Defend Itself Against Russia’s Invasion, Here’s How You Can Contribute
– Ukraine Sells 1,282 War-Themed NFTs in One Day
– Ukraine Launches Crypto Fundraising Site With FTX as Donations Slow Down
– How to Responsibly Donate to Ukrainian Causes
