UkraineDAO NFT, backed by Pussy Riot member, raises $6.7 million for Ukraine
Organized by UkraineDAO, an initiative backed by a member of the Russian activist group and feminist punk band Pussy Riot, the sale saw thousands of users bid for a share of the digital image.
The sale attracted over 3,200 individual contributions in 72 hours, amounting to just over 2,258 ether (equivalent to about $6.7 million at the time the auction concluded on Wednesday). Organizers said all the funds will go towards “Come Back Alive,” a campaign supporting Ukraine’s military.
Donors will receive tokens proportional to the size of their contribution. Like shareholders, they will be able to vote on future sales of the NFT, although UkraineDAO said it hoped to “discourage” people from trading shares and urged owners to keep them “as a reminder of our world’s ongoing humanitarian needs.”
The NFT sale was co-organized by Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, seen here performing in New York City last week. Credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty
Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, who collaborated with NFT platform CXIP, digital art studio Trippy Labs and online collective PleasrDAO — said in a statement that the Ukrainian flag “unites us.”
“We purposefully avoided adding our own art to this release; in a way it’s our strong conceptual artistic statement,” said Tolokonnikova, who is among Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken critics. “People can have different aesthetics, but it’s not about what color we prefer, it’s about uniting to save lives.”
On its website, UkraineDAO said that a “revolution” could not be achieved with conventional currencies, as there are “too many ways for traditional funds to be intercepted or halted by traditional institutions, governments, and other factions with intent to control, harm, or simply shift funds without transparency.”