Polkadot (DOT) creator Gavin Wood has found himself under fire from various crypto industry observers after pledging he would donate USD 5m worth of crypto to Ukraine’s fight against Russian military aggression, but only if the country’s government posted an address in the blockchain’s native token DOT.
Wood’s proposal has triggered numerous unfavorable comments, with renowned crypto sector commentator ‘grublés’ denouncing it as the “lowest rung of shitcoinery.”
“If you, nation literally getting surrounded by aggressors, promote my shitcoin, I’ll donate,” the commenter ridiculed Woods’ message in a tweet.
Another Twitter user, Shalom Afraimian, said Poladot’s founder was effectively attempting “to buy an advertisement for [USD 5m]… low.”
Meanwhile, on Reddit, a user who goes by the name of Aldi Westside said they were ashamed to have persons like Gavin Wood in the crypto space.
“If Gavin would really care about helping Ukraine, he could easily swap his DOTs to BTC, $, € or one of the many currencies Ukraine accepts for donations,” Westside said.
This said, some users, such as Sir_Baldington, offered another explanation of Woods’ proposal, arguing that, as Woods lives in Germany, exchanging DOT into bitcoin (BTC) or other crypto would make the donation taxable income, potentially burdening him with major taxes.
“At 5 million [dollars] that would be about 50% in taxes from the gains he made,” according to the user.
This explanation was undermined by another user, RayTrader03, who noted that, if Woods has held the crypto for more than a year, it could be assumed it would not be subject to a tax on capital gains in Germany, as it could be considered long-term crypto benefits.
As of 12:26 UTC, DOT’s price stood at USD 17, down 7% in a day and up nearly 1% in a week.
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