Ukraine cancels crypto airdrop, plans to sell NFTs instead

Ukraine’s government abruptly canceled its planned crypto airdrop and said it would instead sell NFTs to raise funds following last week’s Russian invasion.

“After careful consideration we decided to cancel airdrop,” Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister for digital transformation, posted from his verified Twitter account today. “Instead, we will announce NFTs to support Ukrainian Armed Forces soon. We DO NOT HAVE any plans to issue any fungible tokens.”

Scammers had earlier appeared to target Ukraine’s fundraising attempts by issuing a fake token designed to look official. News sites reported that this token was official and it gathered significant trading volume on decentralized exchanges. Yet there were multiple red flags that showed it was likely fake, including the way the token was made to look like it was issued from Ukraine’s public Ethereum address — when it was instead issued by a third party.

While the airdrop is no longer happening, it was a successful marketing tool in gaining further donations. After the airdrop was announced, donations to Ukraine ramped up in anticipation of a future token, with millions of dollars flowing into its coffers.

Yet while those later donors won’t be getting the anticipated token, at least they can say that they’ve now been rugged by a sovereign state.

Source: Michael Silberling/Dune Dashboard

This story has been updated with more information.

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