The major headline story from the last few days has been the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. It is one that has have a direct impact on the crypto market. The market, last week, reacted to Putin’s announcement that Russia had launched a military attack on Ukraine. Digital assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others saw a massive sell off, but crypto actions to the crisis have gone beyond panic trading or price volatility.
As the news of the invasion emerged on Thursday, 24th February, 2022, crypto enthusiasts started rallying together to see how they could help. People started sending Bitcoin donations to the nonprofit organization Come Back Alive, with the funds to be used for logistics and medical supplies. It has already received over $4 million. FTX also came in by donating $25 to every Ukrainian FTX user. As announce by their CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.
The NFT community were also not lagging behind. They responded to the events by showing support for Ukraine: KnownOrigin and MakersPlace, for example, put their usual social schedules on hold in favor of sharing the #StandWithUkraine hashtag to highlight artists from across the country. A list of Ukrainian NFT artists was doing the rounds on Twitter helped by thought leaders like Punk 6529 spreading the message. Many of the artists reported that they had received multiple offers on their work.
Furthermore, Ethereum natives have already formed a UkraineDAO. We have seen how successfully DAOs assemble around various causes, from acquiring sought-after crypto artwork and old video store chains to freeing controversial website founders cum activists from jail. Given how good crypto community are at coordinating, we can expect to see plenty more examples of DAOs forming for major world events like this.
Very recently, events in Canada showed that the traditional system is broken when it comes to fundraising. A GoFundMe page set up to donate money to protesting truckers was shut down due to government pressure and refunds made to the tune of $9 million. The Canadian police authorities issued an order that blacklisted several crypto wallets linked to the Freedom Convoy. It is reported that these thirty-four cryptocurrency wallets on the list had approximately $1.4 million in cryptocurrency.
While Ukraine, unlike Canada is hardly likely to stop people from sending money, the current crisis exposes the various advantages of Bitcoin and digital assets; censorship resistant, trustless, permissionless, transparency and puts them on the world stage. Regardless of macro price volatility, the fact remains, times like these have shown that crypto matters a lot.
On the Russian side, there are talks of the U.S. and other countries excluding the country from the SWIFT payment system, prompting suggestions that the nation could embrace an alternative payment system —crypto. Will this make other non-EU and Western countries look for alternative systems to prevent being in similar situations.
Sending everyone in these crisis zones especially in Ukraine, love and light.
ICYMI
The Ukrainian government raises more than $10 million in crypto following public appeal. Link
Binance to Donate $10M to Ukraine Humanitarian Effort. Link
Bitfinex Seizure: A reminder that crypto is no good for money launderers. Link
Gamers love digital collectibles, but they aren’t fawning over NFTs. Link