Ukraine sold the Cryptopunk NFT for about half of its original value
Ukraine has sold the CryptoPunk NFT donated in March as part of the country’s crypto campaign to raise money. Alex Bornyakov, the country’s deputy minister of digital transformation, announced the sale of the Punk earlier this week. He said that an unknown buyer bought the Punk in question, no. 5364, for 90 ETH (around $100,000) to an unknown buyer.
Although $100,000 will help Ukraine defend itself against invading Russian forces, the country didn’t use the Punk when it was worth the most. This is because of the current bearish NFT market.
In fact, DeepNFTValue, a blog that estimates the price of rare NFTs with machine learning believes the Punk was worth $233,000. At this rate, the Ukranian sold the punk for about half of its original value.
Even though the bear market has made it harder for Ukraine to make the most money from crypto. The country has still raised more than $135 million through crypto and NFT donations since February. The sale of a single Ukraine flag NFT for $6.75 million was the most successful of these efforts.
How Ukraine takes advantage of NFTs to save its cultural “DNA” in the face of a Russian invasion.
In the clear and present danger of Russia’s military destroying Ukraine’s architectural marvels, museums, and other cultural sites, Michael Chobanian, President of the Blockchain Association of Ukraine, said at Consensus 2022 event that Ukraine plans to digitize “every single piece of art or history” it can.
Analytics firm Crystal Blockchain told CoinDesk that Ukraine has paid for its defense against the invasion with cryptocurrency and blockchain. By mid-May, the country had raised more than $135 million in cryptocurrency from donors all over the world.
For instance, the blockchain community in Ukraine pioneered an NFT project called “Crypto at War: Behind Ukraine’s Historic Crypto Fundraiser.”
“It’s a national project, not a private project. We do it as the Blockchain Association of Ukraine, so no one can delete it,” said Chobanian, who also runs the Crypto Fund of Ukraine and started the Kuna Exchange in Ukraine.
Chobanian added that the historic NFT-ization of Ukraine’s artifacts will also show “what is being held” where so that corrupt government officials won’t be able to steal things in unpredictable times like these.
Digitizing an artifact and putting it on a blockchain as an NFT will prove that it existed. The goal of the project is to create a digital window into Ukraine’s cultural history. And they will achieve this by putting all of the NFTs in one place where anyone can see them.
Ukraine’s MetaHistory NFT Museum was the first government NFT project. It was made to keep facts about the war in order to fight “Putin’s disinformation campaign.”Â