Crypto community donates $56 million to Ukraine as scammers target donators

Crypto enthusiasts from across the globe have flocked to help war-torn Ukraine. Cryptocurrencies like BTC ETH, USDT, DOT, SOL, DOGE, etc. have flooded the coffers of the country to support its resistance against the Russian invasion. 

The Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and UkraineDAO also helped in raising funds for the Ukrainian armed forces. The country raised $56.2 million worth of crypto till Thursday, March 3.

Experts say that decentralisation and anonymity have enabled crypto assets to be an excellent means of wartime fundraising. But this anonymity has had its drawbacks too.

Scammers have tried to benefit from the benevolence of crypto donators by posing as the Ukrainian government or NGOs. 

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian government announced an airdrop of tokens for donors who had participated in its crypto fundraising campaign. This helped the Ukrainian government attract 70,000 more donations. However, the government cancelled the airdrop which led to a series of confusions.

Scammers posing as the Ukrainian government created the Peaceful World token. The scammers made it appear as though the Ukrainian government was distributing these tokens to the donors through an airdrop.

Simultaneously the scammers listed the token on the Uniswap exchange, which is a decentralised exchange (which means the exchange has no centralised authority which would cross-check the credentials of the listed token) and started selling it. 

People started clamouring to buy the token and the token pumped 5344.32% in just 24 hours and reached a market capitalisation of $33 million (which amounts to Rs 2,51,79,99,000).

Owing to the controversy created by the Peaceful World token scam, Ukraine could only raise a little over $8 million on Thursday.

Also read: Russia-Ukraine talks: 'Whatever happens next will depend on Kyiv's reaction'

Also read: Coinbase, Binance will not ban Russians from their crypto platforms