A CryptoPunk NFT has become the latest donation to Ukraine as the embattled nation continues its desperate defence against the increasingly brutal invasion from Russian forces.

An NFT – how’s that going to help? Well, Punk #5364 looks kinda badass in a pixelated way, and it’s wearing Ukrainian blue… but it’s possible it could fetch more than US$200,000, according to estimates garnered by the New York-based crypto-media outlet CoinDesk.

Badass habit? CryptoPunk #5364

The NFT was transferred yesterday from an anonymous donor who holds at least seven other CryptoPunks (current floor price of about US$210k) and various other high-value non-fungible tokens.

On February 26, Ukraine began accepting cryptocurrencies as means of donation to aid the besieged country in its time of great need. The Eastern European nation has so far been accepting Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT) and Polkadot (DOT) tokens.

The crypto donations, while dwarfed by other means of funding such as war bonds, have now amassed more than US$33 million worth, according to some reports. Others have the figure closer to US$40 million.

Dr Gavin Wood, the founder of layer 1 protocol Polkadot has personally contributed US$5 million of that in DOT (see tweet below), while the global crypto exchange Binance has also pledged to donate at least US$10 million.

Ukraine teases airdrop for crypto donors

Ukraine’s official Twitter account meanwhile has promised some sort of crypto “airdrop” to those who’ve donated crypto to the country so far.

“Airdrop confirmed,” Ukraine’s official Twitter account posted today. “Snapshot will be taken tomorrow, on March 3rd, at 6pm Kyiv time. Reward to follow!”

The details regarding the “snapshot” aren’t particularly clear at this point, nor the reward itself. A fractionalised CryptoPunk perhaps? Kidding, although an NFT of some sort seems likely.

Not everyone seems satisfied with the airdrop gesture at this stage, though. Justin Sun, the Tron founder turned “Permanent Representative of Grenada to the WTO” has concerns about which donors Ukraine might be unintentionally excluding. Maybe he should cut Ukraine’s government some slack? It’s probably got a bit on its mind…

Since Moscow launched its invasion late last week, Ukraine’s government has been soliciting aid in the forms of weapons, tech and supplies from a wide variety of sources – even multi-billionaire Elon Musk.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has now provided Ukraine with Starlink hardware to get the nation up and running with his satellite-based internet service. Ukraine’s regular web access is forecasted to deteriorate as the conflict worsens.

And, in the true spirit of these meme-obsessed times, Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation has even created an online appeal called “Send Putin to Jupiter”, which calls for US$2.99 donations. It’s fronted by the jokey premise of creating a rocket to blast the Russian dictator into outer space.

 

 

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