In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine.
After the first night of the siege of Kyiv, Zellensky posted a video of defiance and request for help that has now been viewed over 18 million times on Twitter.
With world messages of strong support pouring in for Ukraine, Ukraine itself remains outnumbered and outgunned. In a brilliant move, the Ukrainian government untapped the power of crypto to convert words of support into resources for their defense.
Crypto Goes to War
For the first time in the history of war, crypto is at the forefront from an economic standpoint.
Here are some highlights from so far:
- On February 24, Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX announced that the platform gifted $25 to each of their users in Ukraine.
- On February 26, the official Ukraine account on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) posted this tweet calling for support in Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT. As of this writing, there have over 209K likes and 68K retweets.
- Russian-Canadian Ethereum co-founder Vitalkin Buterin (who is a Russian citizen) declared his support for Ukraine on Twitter, and has been active in forwarding tweets about how to support Ukraine financially. He even took to the use of four-letter words against Russia Times Editor-in-Chief’s comments.
- In response to the original tweet from the Ukrainian government, Polkadot Founder, Gavin Wood, announced if they accepted $DOT, he would donate $5 million to their effort. They did, and he made good on his promise, donating around $5.7 million.
- On March 2, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, even announced opening a Dogecoin wallet, directly appealing to the meme coin’s supporters while taking a dig at the Russian Ruble:
- Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus voiced his support and donated as well. After the first morning, 296,300 $DOGE (around $40,000) has been donated by 397 wallets to the Ukrainians cause.
- On March 2, Nexo Finance pledged to match 100% of all customer donations from Nexo wallets and 200% of all Nexo employee donations to Ukraine’s official Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and Polkadot cryptocurrency addresses.
- On March 2, UniSwap Labs announced it had updated its interface allowing individuals to donate to the Ukrainian government.
A Ukraine DAO
A Ukraine DAO was formed. According to their Twitter handle, their stated purpose is: “Using the power of web3 tech and community to raise funds for Ukrainian organisations that are helping those suffering from the war in Ukraine.”
They have provided multiple means of contribution.
One of their methods of raising funds was the auctioning off of a Ukrainian flag NFT. The auction was completed in the early morning hours of March 2, and resulted in a 2,070 ETH sale. Which is over $6 million USD as of this writing.
Time reported that in total, over $30 million had been raised in support of Ukraine using crypto as of March 1, 2022.
The Brutal War
There are no mincing words, war is brutal and true leaders have zero business invading other countries. This war is particularly brutal. Sanctions on Russia are devastating for their economy, and the Russian army’s siege of the Ukraine continues to increase in intensity.
Putin has even made threats about nuclear weapons. It is my sincerest hope that this war will end as swiftly as possible, with as little human misery as possible.
Cryptocurrency is a tool, like any other currency. It can be used for good or evil.
The original version of this article was published on https://thelatestblock.com/