With its country under Russian siege, Ukraine enthralled crypto Twitter with the guarantee of an airdrop, a frequent incentive for early adopters of new coins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Ukraine said on Wednesday, 2 March 2022, through its official Twitter account that it will execute an airdrop to donors who have donated millions to its official crypto addresses. The tweet read,
“Airdrop confirmed. Snapshot will be taken tomorrow, on March 3rd, at 6 pm Kyiv time (UTC/GMT +2 hours). Reward to follow!”
Airdrops include cryptocurrency projects that distribute free tokens to their community in order to stimulate acceptance. In 2021, El Salvador distributed $30 worth of bitcoin to its residents. The one announced for Thursday, on the other hand, would be the first time a country undertakes an airdrop in exchange for crypto donations.
On 26 February 2022, as Russian troops invaded Ukrainian territory in a “special military operation,” Ukraine began taking cryptocurrency as a form of donation. So far, donations in bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), and Polkadot (DOT) tokens have been accepted.
The latest donation made was the CryptoPunk NFT. With this NFT donation, the total cryptocurrency donations amounted to $33 million. On Tuesday, 1 March 2022, CryptoPunk #5364 was sent to Ukraine’s Ethereum wallet, putting a financially valuable and sought-after cap on a fundraising drive.
However, opinions on the Punk’s worth differ. When crypto tracking business Elliptic identified the contribution on late Tuesday, Tom Robinson of Elliptic estimated it to be worth roughly $200,000; DeepNFTvalue, a site that utilizes machine learning to evaluate prices for unusual NFTs, put it at $233,000.
Ukraine’s crypto airdrop contains uncertainties
It’s not really evident what “snapshot” meant or whether any rewards would come in the form of tokens, NFTs, or something else. An email to Ukraine’s ministry of digital transformation seeking more information on the airdrop was not instantly returned.
Furthermore, Ukraine’s government has been utilizing memes and other digital growth hacking actions to enhance awareness of its suffering and generate finances since Russia invaded last week, including an online campaign to “Send Putin to Jupiter” by purchasing virtual rocket parts for $2.99 each.
Ukraine started requested cryptocurrency donations on February 26 and has so far received more than $30 million. Simultaneously, it is generating far larger sums through more traditional finance methods such as military equipment.