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Welcome to Non-Fungible Tidbits. Our focus this week: Russia's war in the Ukraine.
In addition to uprooting the lives of Ukrainians and throwing the international order into chaos, the Russian invasion has created a testing ground for some of cryptocurrency's most ambitious and cynical use cases. On the one hand, cryptocurrencies have become a tool for individuals and organizations to provide charitable support and donations to Ukrainians (as well as a new frontier for online scammers). But there is reports of Russian oligarchs using technology to evade an increasingly aggressive set of financial sanctions. We will also see the sale of a Ukrainian flag NFT to support Ukraine, a project backed by a member of the Russian punk band PussyRiot.
Our other stories include scams trying to exploit donations to Ukraine and how some crypto exchanges are handling sanctions against Russia.
Crypto Donations Worth Millions Raised For Ukraine
More than $50 million in cryptocurrency has been raised for Ukraine since Russia began military operations in the nation last week. Many of these donations have been made directly to the Ukrainian government. Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, tweeted wallet addresses for cryptocurrency donations, which was also tweeted by the official Ukrainian Twitter account. More than $47 million in cryptocurrency has been donated in this way, says Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm.
Read CNET's full story on how Ukraine raised over $55 million in crypto to help resist Russia.
NFT Backed By A Member Of Russian Punk Band PussyRiot Raises $6.7M For Ukraine
Aside from direct donations to the Ukrainian government, UkraineDAO, an online organization backed by a member of the Russian punk rock group PussyRiot, has raised millions for auction of a Ukrainian flag sold as NFT. Contributors were able to share ownership of the NFT and 3,200 individual contributions were made in 72 hours totaling $6.7 million in ether.
Scammers trying to exploit the war in Ukraine
If you want to donate to help Ukrainians, it's good to be aware of social media scams using the war in Ukraine for illicit profit. These scams can take the form of fake charities and other organizations claiming to support Ukrainians. Especially when it comes to cryptocurrencies, anyone who wants to donate should be careful, as cryptocurrency transactions are generally irreversible and difficult to trace. If you're willing to donate, check out CNET's list of charities and make sure that investigate first.
Read CNET's full story on how the war in Ukraine exposes scammers trying to exploit donations.
Cryptocurrency exchanges do not want to ban users in Russia
While the White House has not yet commented on this directly, Bloomberg reports The Biden administration has called on cryptocurrency exchanges to prevent Russian individuals and organizations from using virtual currencies to circumvent Washington sanctions. Bloomberg quotes a White House official as saying that US authorities are aggressively fighting any misuse of digital assets to avoid sanctions. Reuters reports Binance, as well as US-based Coinbase and Kraken, have agreed to vet users and block anyone subject to sanctions, but the exchanges stopped short of banning all Russian clients. Binance and Coinbase are the two largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world by market capitalization.
