Ukraine cancels token airdrop, reveals new NFT plans

Ukraine has received nearly $40 million in crypto donations, out of which almost $7 million came after the announcement of the now-canceled airdrop.

The vice prime minister of Ukraine informed the public on Wednesday that they have decided to cancel the airdrop for crypto donors that was announced on Tuesday and plans to raise more money through the sale of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) instead.

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

Ukraine’s crypto airdrop program took an unexpected turn on Wednesday when a fake account created 7 billion “Peace World Tokens,” disguising it to be the original airdrop token for crypto donors.

The fake airdrop began almost an hour before the official mentioned time, but was flagged soon after by Etherscan. A couple of hours later, the Ukrainian minister announced they plan to use NFTs and have forfeited plans of offering any fungible tokens.

The official Ukrainian crypto wallet for donations reportedly received $7 million in donations after the airdrop announcement, which became a topic of debate on crypto Twitter. While the minister didn’t reveal any reasons for the cancellation of the airdrop, some in the crypto community were not happy about the U-turn.

This is the best rug ever

— Cobie (@cobie) March 3, 2022

Related: Anti-war Russians start donating crypto to support Ukraine

Initially, Ukraine announced an airdrop on Wednesday following robust support from the crypto community along with millions in crypto donations.

Airdrop confirmed. Snapshot will be taken tomorrow, on March 3rd, at 6pm Kyiv time (UTC/GMT +2 hours).
Reward to follow!
Follow subsequent news re Ukraine’s crypto donation campaign at @FedorovMykhailo

— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) March 2, 2022

Ukraine turned to crypto amid worsening situations in the country caused by Russia’s invasions. The official Twitter account for Ukraine on February 26 shared a Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) wallet address along with a call for help from the crypto community the world over.

Upon the crypto community’s request to add more crypto support, the official donation wallet went on to add Polkadot and Dogecoin addresses as well.

The people of Ukraine are grateful for the support and donations from the global crypto community as we protect our freedom. We are now accepting Polkadot donations too: $DOT: 1x8aa2N2Ar9SQweJv9vsuZn3WYDHu7gMQu1RePjZuBe33Hv.
More cryptocurrencies to be accepted soon.

— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) March 1, 2022

Reports suggest that the official donation wallet for Ukraine has received a total of $37 million in tracked crypto donations.