Ukraine cancels airdrop amid phishing attempt

The Ukrainian government has canceled a planned crypto airdrop as the Russian invasion continues. With it, devious hackers have pounced again.

Twitter users identified the newly minted token Peaceful World (WORD) token distribution from Ukraine’s Ethereum wallet as a potential phishing scam.

Hackers trying to spoof WORD

Ukraine’s Ethereum wallet seemed to distribute a newly minted token, but suspicions have emerged that hackers were trying to spoof the token in a scam.

Mykhailo Fedorov, the country’s deputy prime minister and minister of digital transformation, made the announcement on Twitter via his verified account today. He tweeted:

After careful consideration we decided to cancel airdrop. Every day there are more and more people willing to help Ukraine to fight back the aggression.

Country to support its armed forces via NFTs

Fedorov said Ukraine would announce non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to support its armed forces, but pointed out the country has no plans to issue such.

The country officially announced the airdrop on Wednesday, after which government officials released no further information and made no announcements regarding the event, which had been slated for Thursday.

Goal of drop was to reward donors

Yesterday’s announcement indicated the purpose of the initiative was to reward crypto donors. After the intervention of malevolent third parties, the much-anticipated event fell through.

Crypto donations to Ukraine total $30M

Ukraine has raised around $30 million since it started accepting crypto donations about a week ago, Fedorov’s most recent update on Telegram shows. 

They have been raising money via Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot, and other altcoins like Dai, Candle, Dogs of Elon, and more. Funds are also being raised in stablecoins like Tether and USDC.  

Etherscan data shows the Ukrainian Ethereum wallet has officially received crypto assets worth over $15.9 million, with Ethereum (ETH) only accounting for about $8.1 million. The rest is in the form of the above-mentioned stablecoins and altcoins.

Ukraine was at the forefront of crypto adoption

Before the invasion, Ukraine was a pioneer of crypto. It also became the first country in the world to officially ask for donations in crypto. The hryvnia has crashed and the invasion has impacted electronic payments adversely as well.