London (Reuters) – Ukraine, which has been in a war for three months, wants to keep getting money from crypto investors even though a drop in prices in May killed the country’s efforts to raise money.
After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the Ukrainian government asked for cryptocurrency donations through social media. This week, Mykhailo Fedorov, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, went to Davos for the World Economic Forum.
On March 19, the government announced that it had collected more than $60 million in cryptocurrency. But two months later, on May 19, Ukraine’s deputy minister for digital transformation, Alex Bornyakov, said that the total amount raised was $51.5 million.
In recent weeks, the prices of cryptocurrencies have dropped sharply. So far in May, Bitcoin’s price has dropped more than 20 percent. This comes on top of a 17% drop in April, demonstrating how risky it is to hold these assets.
All of the money raised for the “Aid for Ukraine” fund was kept in cryptocurrency, but the government was able to spend $45 million of it on equipment for the Ukrainian army before the crash, Bornyakov said in written answers to questions from Reuters.
Ukraine has used cryptocurrencies to pay for some of its war costs. Before the war, more bitcoins were given to volunteer groups in Ukraine. Some of these groups gave equipment to government forces.
Even though crypto could bring in some much-needed money, Kiev says it needs $15 billion over the next three months to help its war-torn economy recover.
THE NFTS FOR WATER
Even though crypto assets are volatile, Ukrainians who want to raise money still like them.
Obolon, the biggest independent beer brand in Ukraine, wants to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to help it give out free water for humanitarian aid.
It is doing this because Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation’s online “Museum of War” NFT collection has raised 286 ether, which is about $550,000.
Obolon wants to sell 5,000 NFTs for 0.1 ether, which is about $200. After the war, these NFTs can be traded in for a commemorative beer bottle.
In a video interview, Olexander Chub, Obolon’s director of foreign trade, said, “This project is directly meant to help us keep growing because our finances are hard right now because the economy in Ukraine is bad.”
Bitcoin so far in 2022: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xmvjoxbngpr/Bitcoin.png a065df22-d28f-4ebb-be21-37db4e9706ed1 a065df22-d28f-4ebb-be21-37db4e9706ed
