Ukraine Will Airdrop Tokens to Crypto Donors

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day

Mar. 2, 2022

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Welcome to The Node.

In today's newsletter: Ukraine will airdrop a token to crypto donors. Digital Currency Group authorizes $250 million share repurchase program. And President Vladimir Putin signs decree to prevent capital flight from country.

Questions? Feedback? We'd love to hear from you – simply reply to this email.

–Daniel Kuhn

Today's must-reads

Top Shelf

NATION-STATE AIRDROP: Ukraine will airdrop a token to donors who have contributed to its official crypto fundraising effort, which has already brought in over $30 million in various cryptos and even a CryptoPunk NFT. Most of said funds have already been spent on basic necessities and military supplies, according to a person close to the matter. The country recently began accepting dogecoin, and a non-fungible token of the Ukrainian flag sold for $6.7 million, while others experiment with DAOs to benefit the war-torn nation.

Follow CoinDesk's continuing coverage of Ukraine.

BUYBACK BUOY: The Digital Currency Group (DCG) board has authorized a share repurchase program of up to $250 million across its nine publicly traded cryptocurrency trusts – many of which are trading at a steep discount – using cash on hand in the open market. The plan includes up to $30 million worth of shares in the Grayscale Litecoin Trust (LTCN), $10 million of the Grayscale Horizen Trust (HZEN), $10 million of the Grayscale Zcash Trust (ZCSH), and up to $200 million in any of its other six publicly traded products, including the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). DCG is CoinDesk's parent company.

SANCTIONS EVASION? Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly signed a decree that will temporarily prevent foreign investors in Russia from selling their assets and withdrawing funds from the country in excess of $10,000. The move is aimed at halting capital flight from the country hit by severe economic sanctions. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the ongoing Ukrainian war emphasizes a need for cryptocurrency regulation to prevent sanction evasion.

LUNATICS: A price surge in Terra's LUNA token over the past week has made it the second-largest staked asset among all major cryptocurrencies in terms of total value staked, according to a data source. LUNA surpassed ether, which has just over $28 billion in staked value at the time of writing.

Overheard on CoinDesk TV...

Sound Bites

"It may not be very easy to leverage crypto to evade sanctions."

–Tanvi Ratna, Policy 4.0 CEO, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover."

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What others are writing...

Off-Chain Signals

Parler Is Trying to Attract Crypto Users to Its New Marketplace – With Trump NFTs (Decrypt)
Dolly Parton Creates the 'Dollyverse,' Releases NFTs, Book With Novelist James Patterson (Decrypt)
Galaxy Digital Holdings appoints Brown University's Jane Dietze to board of directors (The Block)

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Putting the news into perspective

The Takeaway

Bitcoiners Were Right: Weaponized Finance Just Created a Post-Dollar Planet

A wave of sanctions hitting Russia highlights the complex web of connections that make up contemporary global society – and its ultimate fragility.

Vladimir Putin's Russia is facing a wave of truly unprecedented financial sanctions in retaliation for its widely scorned invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions have suddenly revealed the massive power that lay dormant in the unified global banking system for decades. But it likely also marks the beginning of that power's end, and the dawn of something more fragmented.

Russia's dependence on systems like SWIFT bank messaging, correspondent banking and ApplePay is a product of the global dominance of a unified market-capitalist status quo. This status quo represents the neoliberal "End of History" that was widely presumed to have arrived with the fall of the Soviet Union. But there may be no better sign of the end of the End of History than the weaponization of finance happening right now.

The scope of sanctions hitting Russia over the last week has showcased the incredible web of nested cross-border interdependencies that make up the fabric of essentially every contemporary society – and their ultimate fragility. Some Russian banks have been disconnected from the SWIFT messaging system crucial to international transfers. Shares in one of Russia's largest banks collapsed 95% on the London Stock Exchange. The ruble has declined by roughly 50% against the dollar in just a week, a body blow to the Russian economy that would have long-lasting effects even if it is a short term dip – which it won't be.

Trade restrictions are looking just as devastating. Taiwan has said it will halt semiconductor exports to Russia. Industry observers believe the Russian commercial airfleet, made up largely of Boeing and Airbus planes, is two to three weeks away from complete shutdown because of an embargo on parts. Apple Pay and other consumer payments services have been cut off for some customers, reportedly causing disruptions including slowdowns in Moscow's subway system.

The total impact reaches down into the very guts of Russian society. It was seemingly not much of an exaggeration, then, when France's finance minister promised on Tuesday, March 1 that "We are going to cause the collapse of the Russian economy."

All of this should be considered in a longer historical context – until recently, such opportunities for disruption simply didn't exist. SWIFT was not created until 1978. As recently as the middle of the 20th century, international banking still regularly involved shipping large amounts of gold around on boats.

…Aaaaand it's gone

Read the full essay here.

–David Z. Morris

A Satoshi Nakamoto NFT for the Metaverse

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The core members of BitBTC met Minhua Ouyang (Bonnybb.eth) in New York, where they learned she had started creating NFTs in July 2019 and was one of the earliest NFT creators in the city. After brainstorming with BitBTC team members, she decided to create the Satoshi NFT project.

*This is sponsored content from BitBTC.