According to Bloomberg News, Ukraine sold 1,282 NFTs on the first day of sale for a total of 190 Ether (ETH), approximately $655,000 at the time of writing, citing an email from the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
The profits would be used to restore cultural and heritage sites, such as museums and theatres, that were devastated during the country’s war with Russia.
The Ukrainian MetaHistory NFT-Museum also created a Twitter thread that kept track of the sales. The last public tally was 1,153 NFTs sold for more than $500,000. Additionally, the country declared that it would give away one of the unique NFTs for free to celebrate reaching the half-a-million milestone.
Official NFT Collection of the Ukrainian Government,
Is live!
To celebrate $500,000+ raised, we will be giving away one of our unique NFTs.
To enter
1. Follow @Meta_History_UA
2. Like and retweet this postMint Now: https://t.co/ig8rEIPZxh#NeverForgetThis pic.twitter.com/7ImhvMk5OD
— META HISTORY: Museum of War (@Meta_History_UA) March 31, 2022
Furthermore, META HISTORY announced that only people who own one of the NFTs will be able to purchase the prospect 100 winning artworks, as well as the first 4 artworks created under the project.
We’ve already sold 1153 artworks and the sales go on. Our goal is 1million!
Have raised more than 500k USD by now!
Only NFT owners will be able to buy the masterpieces of the Prospect 100 winners and the very first four artworks soon. Support Ukraine! pic.twitter.com/HfK747cpxN— META HISTORY: Museum of War (@Meta_History_UA) March 31, 2022
Ukraine’s use of crypto during the war
When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February, people all over the world began donating cryptocurrency to various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that were assisting in the war effort. Ukraine jumped on board quickly and began posting official wallet addresses to which people could donate.
Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT.
BTC – 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P
ETH and USDT (ERC-20) – 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) February 26, 2022
In response, the crypto community and industry have been donating millions of dollars in cryptocurrency and even NFTs. According to the government’s official website for donations, the country has received more than $70 million in cryptocurrency since the war began.
Ukraine now accepts donations in a variety of cryptocurrencies and ranks fourth in terms of adoption worldwide. It also now officially recognizes cryptocurrency as a legal asset.
Following the influx of donations, Ukraine announced that it would conduct an airdrop for all ETH donors. However, less than a day later, the country announced that it would abandon plans to airdrop an official cryptocurrency and would instead focus on releasing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a means of raising funds.
Bitcoin as a humanitarian tool
When their respective financial systems collapsed due to war and sanctions, citizens in both Ukraine and Russia turned to cryptocurrency to try to save their wealth.
1/2 Crazy story,my webmaster escaping from Ukraine 2 hours before the gvnmt closes the border for men of war age,bank ATMs were blocked of course,and he who upon my advice had preloaded his hw wallet with #Bitcoin,makes it in time to cross the Polish border and withdraw #BTC… pic.twitter.com/ACWr4ZHvbQ
— Francesco Madonna (@CiccioMadonna) February 25, 2022
At the time, the Human Rights Foundation’s chief strategy officer, Alex Gladstein, described Bitcoin (BTC) as an “important humanitarian tool” that allows people to survive in extreme scenarios such as war.
“The fact that it can’t be frozen, that it can’t be censored, and that it can be used without ID is very, very important,” Gladstein said.
