It was inevitable that the Russian-Ukraine conflict would heat up to present crescendo, as a proxy between the West and the ex-Soviet superpower. After all, NATO has been aggressively expanding eastwards after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, which is odd given that NATO’s whole purpose was driven by the existence of the defunct superpower.
Nonetheless, in this predictable but tragic situation, Ukrainian civilians need all the help they can get. Crypto space answered the call the best it could, through decentralized funding. One of them comes from CryptoPunks NFT donations.
CryptoPunks Still Reigns Supreme (above BAYC at least)
Although no NFT collection can beat the majestic Axie Infinity at $4 billion in sales, CryptoPunks come close behind Axie at half that, $2 billion. Although it has more total sales, CryptoPunks’ price floor is still lower than the third-ranked BAYC, Ξ68.9 vs. Ξ82 respectively.
With CryptoPunks’ popularity as shiny as ever, the pixelated NFT collection recently made headlines again for a record high sale. CryptoPunk #5822 was sold for an unbelievable $23.7 million worth in Ξ8000 on February 12. The reason for this high price ceiling is that it is just one of nine Alien punks.
In comparison, the latest NFT donation to Ukraine’s wallet seems puny.
Ukraine Has an Ethereum Wallet?
That’s right. Crypto adoption has progressed so far that Europe’s largest nation by land-mass has official cryptocurrency wallet addresses. Last Saturday, Ukraine’s official Twitter account shared two of them. One for BTC and the other for ERC-20 tokens — ETH and USDT.
To the second address, CryptoPunk #5364 was transferred on March 1, currently bidding at Ξ38, or $112.9k. It is a Male punk, one of 6039, so quite common. Furthermore, it has three attributes -— cigarette, bandana, and classic shades — shared with 4501 other punks.
Given its low rarity status, its previous high price was achieved on February 21st, at Ξ16.19, or $31.5k. Overall, the Ukraine crypto campaign thus far received $33 million worth of crypto assets, both as cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
In the meantime, there are long lines forming at Russia’s ATMs due to crippling economic sanctions and an unprecedented level of financial isolation. Almost certainly, many more people in both countries will elevate their crypto literacy as a result.
https://twitter.com/taxfreelt/status/1497811412265099265Both Ukraine and Russia top the world’s countries by crypto holders, as a percentage of the population. At 12.73%, Ukraine is just ahead of Russia’s 11.91%, according to the triple-A report. Very likely, this may be why we are seeing Bitcoin rallying by 15% overnight. If that turns out to be sustainable, the crypto winter will have ended before it even started!