Chinese NFT platforms don’t want you to trade NFTs anymoreDo NFTs still have value if they can’t be resold? The Chinese NFT industry is about to find out. By Zeyi Yangarchive
On April 13, three national financial industry associations in China—which collectively cover almost all Chinese banks, brokerages, and fintech companies—released a joint statement on how to approach NFTs, one-of-a-kind digital tokens that preserve ownership and copyright information on a blockchain. To “prevent financial risks,” they are asking members not to offer centralized trading platforms for NFTs, to refrain from investing directly or indirectly in NFTs, and to forbid using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum in buying or selling them, among other measures.
The initiative is designed to make it harder to trade NFTs and impossible to speculate in them. Ultimately, the shifting political atmosphere around NFTs may help test whether they hold any intrinsic value.
In the US, most NFTs are minted on the Ethereum blockchain and traded in Ethereum; they are among the most hyped cryptocurrency products in recent years. But in China, where cryptocurrency trading and mining are banned, NFTs have managed to find a breathing space by staying away from crypto. Instead, major tech companies like Alibaba and Tencent have their own NFT marketplaces. Popular brands like Audi and McDonald’s, which released NFT offerings to Chinese consumers to jump on the bandwagon, did not host them on public blockchains.
Source: Chinese NFT platforms don’t want you to trade NFTs anymore | MIT Technology Review