TRON founder Justin Sun is angry that Ukraine is leaving his chain's users out of its airdrop. Sun alleges that TRON users have donated over $1.2M in USDT (TRC20) to the country, making it unfair they will be left out of the airdrop.
Sun's tone-deaf comment reflects the broader approach taken by the crypto community at large in regard to Ukraine's airdrop. The general pulse is that the potential financial benefit ownership of a token attached to such an impactful geopolitical event outweighs the good the donation will do in the first place.
Prior to the airdrop announcement, Ukraine tweeted that it is accepting donations to its ETH and BTC wallets. This prompted the heads of other chains, like Gavin Wood and Justin Sun, to comment that if the country accepts their chain for donations, they will personally donate to the cause.
Critics could point to it being a play by the founders to leverage the events to promote their chains. Others could point to the probability that these founders most likely have a large portion of their wealth concentrated in their chain's tokens.
Ukraine did end up opening up donations for Gavin Wood's DOT, yet left out Sun's TRON.
- Solana's co-founder commented on the founders' insistence to use their chain, "Just f**king swap on FTX or use a bridge."
Farokh sums the situation up pretty well here.
