Breaking: Ukraine Cancels Awaited Airdrop For Crypto Donors

Ukraine has cancelled its upcoming airdrop for crypto donors scheduled today. Earlier as reported by CoinGape,  the airdrop event was likely targeted by a phishing attempt. The country will instead issue NFTs to thank its crypto donors, at an unspecified time.

Ukraine will issue NFTs to thank donors

The move comes as what seemed like an early distribution of newly minted tokens by the government turned out to be a phishing attempt through Ukraine’s Ethereum wallet. The cancellation was announced by Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov in a tweet-

After careful consideration we decided to cancel airdrop. Every day there are more and more people willing to help Ukraine to fight back the agression. Instead, we will announce NFTs to support Ukrainian Armed Forces soon. We DO NOT HAVE any plans to issue any fungible tokens

— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) March 3, 2022

The country’s Ethereum wallet had appeared to be distributing a newly minted token called Peaceful World (WORLD). But twitter users had swiftly called the token out for being spoofed, and a possible scam.

Donations had surged on Airdrop news

The country had announced the airdrop on Wednesday as total crypto donations crossed $50 million. A snapshot was set to be taken at 6 PM Kyiv time (11 AM ET) on Thursday.  An airdrop is a promotional tactic used by a blockchain project, where it distributes free tokens to increase engagement with the platform. The tactic had clearly worked for Ukraine, with the country seeing a slew of microdonations on Ethereum after the announcement.

Ukraine also began accepting several altcoins, including popular memecoin DOGE. The country’s ethereum wallet is currently valued at about $12 million, according to the latest data from Etherscan.

Crypto Takes Center Stage in Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Ukraine has been at the forefront of crypto adoption in the wake of the Russian invasion, becoming the first country in the world to officially solicit donations through crypto. Crypto trading volumes among the populace also spiked after the hryvnia crashed and electronic payments were taken down by the invasion.

But the country has also attempted to weaponize crypto against the invading force. Fedorov had recently called on major exchanges to block Russian users entirely- a move that was rebuked by the crypto community. The government had also offered crypto bounties for any information on  any information regarding the wallets of Russian and Belarusian politicians.

About Author

With more than five years of experience covering global financial markets, Ambar intends to leverage this knowledge towards the rapidly expanding world of crypto and DeFi. His interest lies chiefly in finding how geopolitical developments can impact crypto markets, and what that could mean for your bitcoin holdings. When he isn’t trawling through the web for the latest breaking news, you can find him playing videogames or watching Seinfeld reruns.
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