Kalush Orchestra, the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, are auctioning off an NFT for charity. The auction started May 25 on MetaHistory — the official Ukrainian charitable NFT museum – and will last only until the 28th. Bids will be accepted in both cryptocurrency and fiat currency (via Monobank), thus creating a friendly competition for what type of currency can bring the most donations.
The raffle initiative is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the association of broadcasters that organizes the international Eurovision Song Contest. All of the money raised will go to the CO Charitable Foundation of Serhiy Prytula.
Forty countries participated in the popular European cultural event, with Russia excluded from Eurovision this year. The Ukrainian song won by a large margin, and was the first written entirely in the Ukrainian language. As such, it is widely considered that voters for it supported not only the music of Kalush Orchestra, but the struggles of the country in general.
The Ukrainian people, and even government, have embraced crypto donations and NFTs as a means to gather support in a way that on one could have expected before the events of the last 3 months. According to analytical group Crystal, crypto donations for Ukraine during the war were the largest in history. As of May 12, 2022, this amounted to more than $82 million. Considering this, it’s not that surprising that the first attempt to make the minting of the NFT trophy “Crystal Microphone” in Europe belongs to Ukraine.
“Web3 allows to pool funds in unprecedented ways”, says Alona Shevchenko, co-founder of Ukraine DAO. The NFT of the Ukrainian flag, launched by Ukraine DAO, was auctioned off for $6.5 million in ETH, making it the 10th most expensive NFT ever sold.
“The last three months of war has shown how powerful and creative Web3 could be when it comes to fighting for human freedom”, adds Rev Miller, one of the founding partners of Unchain Fund. To date, Unchain raised around $10m in crypto across 15 different blockchains.
“MetaHistory stand for any undertakings and efforts to collect a charitable support for the benefit of Ukraine. So, when it comes to such a historical trophy and the precedence of the minting, it causes only admiration for MH and Kalush Orchestra teams” comments VK, CEO & founder of MetaHistory.
What do you think about artists releasing NFTs for charity?
