Ukraine Announces Crypto ‘Reward’ for People Who Donate to Them

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been marked both by brutality and stunningly modern turns—from threats to crash the International Space Station and chaotic cyber vigilantism to the ambiguous role that cryptocurrency is playing on both sides of the war. 

Now, Ukraine has taken a page out of the buzzy crypto industry playbook and announced an "airdrop" to "reward" those who donate to the country's defense efforts using cryptocurrency, in a tweet more in line with a startup than a nation at war, to the elation of some and the confusion of many. 

"Airdrop confirmed," the official Twitter account for Ukraine's government tweeted on Wednesday morning in a thread where it listed cryptocurrency donation addresses. "Snapshot will be taken tomorrow, on March 3rd, at 6pm Kyiv time (UTC/GMT +2 hours). Reward to follow!”

A token airdrop is very much a common occurrence in crypto these days. Typically, a project will take a "snapshot" of all the addresses that have engaged in some activity (using a particular service, for example, or paying gas fees on Ethereum, or donating) and then "airdrop" new tokens into those addresses for free. This is sometimes done to kickstart a DAO, where the airdropped tokens are meant for governance purposes, or sometimes it's just done as a reward for users as the airdropped tokens gain value. 

It's unclear which direction Ukraine will go in with its airdrop, and it's very possible that the promised reward will be the equivalent of a worthless "I donated!" participation sticker. Letting the world know that the snapshot will be taken tomorrow could also encourage more donations as people pile in for the reward in the meantime. 

A request for comment to the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, which is leading the country's crypto efforts, was not immediately returned. 

Some investors were elated by the news of an incoming airdrop, and wondered if their token donation would be covered in the snapshot. "On which Blockchains is the Snapshot? Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, PolkaDot, Solana???" tweeted one user, who included two "100" emojis and a rocket ship. 

Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron cryptocurrency and current WTO ambassador for Grenada, was angry at the possibility of being left out and said excluding Tron would be “UNJUST!” 

"Answering to the humanitarian appeal from @FedorovMykhailo, TRON community has donated over $1.2M in USDT (TRC20), but now the airdrop just ignores them completely. It is just UNFAIR. We need to fix it!" he tweeted. "It is not a matter of expecting a return but if an airdrop is going to all that donated and excluding TRON is UNJUST!" he said in another tweet. USDT is a stablecoin issued by a company called Tether. 

"Bro did you really reply to Ukraine's twitter saying excluding Tron from an airdrop was unjust, in the middle of Ukraine getting invaded in a war?" one user replied to Sun. 

Cryptocurrency has played an ambiguous role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine so far. Ukraine, which passed a law formally regulating the crypto industry in mid-February, has embraced the technology and has solicited millions of dollars in donations in multiple tokens, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Polkadot, after the latter's founder committed a $5 million donation if Ukraine posted an address for his project. 

Data shows that Ukrainians bought up more crypto when the Russian invasion occurred, perhaps seeking financial safety, and Russians have also been piling into crypto as the ruble's value crashes and citizens line up at ATMs to get their money out of the banks. 

Ukraine has also requested that major cryptocurrency exchanges ban all Russian users, which firms have so far rebuffed in the name of "economic freedom" and the possible harm to average Russians seeking a way out of the crashing ruble.