The Unchain fund has raised $1.8 million and plans to launch a DAO this week, even as team members live with sirens, explosions and artillery barrage following the Russian invasion.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, Andriy Velikiy would look out his window at night and count the lights in the windows of nearby buildings. Around 90% of them stayed black.
The cryptocurrency entrepreneur‘s apartment building faced Kyiv’s Maidan Square. Normally full of people, it’s empty and silent now, except for the sirens blaring from time to time.
“I chose to stay somewhere in between. I’ll stay here in my apartment and protect my family here,” Velikiy, a member of a local shooting club, told CoinDesk on Monday. “And if things get worse – [I] will go to the frontlines.” On Tuesday, he posted on Facebook that he had left Kyiv with his family.
Velikiy wears several hats. He is the CEO of Apyswap Foundation and co-founder of Allbridge, a startup working on cross-chain integrations and building bridges between blockchains. Many of his employees have moved to the western part of Ukraine, a bit farther from Russian tanks and rockets than Kyiv.