In mid-April, a group of Chinese trade associations warned against the potential financial risks of non-fungible tokens, digital assets representing real-world objects, or intangible goods such as songs. NFTs must not trade with cryptocurrencies, Said It is a national bank, internet finance, and securities association and should not be used to create securitized products.
Trade associations are not regulatory, but they still influence policy makers and are taken seriously. Many in the crypto industry see this declaration as the death secret to the development of NFTs in China. But strangely, China’s tech giants are showing growing interest in this area.
Since then Cryptographic transactions are banned in China, NFTs exist in a domestically constrained way. Technology companies, rather than NFTs, call them “digital collectibles”, keeping initiatives away from the financial and speculative nature of many NFTs and emphasizing the ability of use cases to prove ownership and credibility. .. As such, many of the objects cast in China are artwork that resembles ancient Chinese Buddha statues, or objects that convey historical or cultural significance, such as the famous Chinese spacecraft.
As the Financial Association stated in a statement, the value of NFTs has the potential to drive the growth of creative and cultural industries.
Unlike NFTs, which are created on Ethereum and other public chains and traded with cryptocurrencies in the open market, digital collections issued in China are created on licensed blockchains managed by local tech giants. Often sold on their own channels for these companies. Users must first verify their actual identity on these platforms before purchasing collectibles using Chinese fiat yuan, and reselling their work on the secondary market is prohibited.
Regulations mean that China’s digital collections are isolated from the global NFT market and are very illiquid. On some platforms, the owner can transfer the property, but only a few months after purchasing it for free.
Still, Chinese tech giants are in a hurry to release digital collectibles, and some have ventured across borders to sell NFTs abroad. Below is a summary of some of the key players in the space so far.
- Whale Talk Is a flagship digital collector service created by Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Group in mid-2021.The artwork is AntChainA distributed ledger (also known as a consortium / alliance chain) that requires permission to participate and is jointly managed by Ant and its institutional partners.
Whaletalk app screenshot
- In April, Alibaba’s food delivery service Ele.me launched its digital collection service, a comprehensive platform that allows Chinese users to order on-demand services and now also purchase food-themed digital collections. Introduced.
- Last August, Tencent launched Magic Core Dixin chain, A consortium chain built by Tencent and its partners. The most notable use case for Zhixin chains is to use blockchains to authenticate documents by replacing physical ink seals or corporate stamps.
- Online retail giant JD.com Zhizhen chainA consortium chain operated in December.
- Baidu, a national search engine and self-driving giant, released a Space Day-themed collection at the consortium Xuperchain in April.
Go abroad
Some Chinese tech giants are bringing NFT ambitions abroad. At least it shows a strong interest.
- This week, Bilibili, a popular user-generated video streaming site in China, announced that it will release a collection of 10,000 unique profile pictures through third-party partners. CryptoNattyRecently established company In singapore.. The company “licenss” its intellectual property to CryptoNatty, who creates illustrated avatars on Ethereum. Given that most of Bilibili’s users are in China, it’s unclear how they share revenue or who their target audience is. Contact Bilibili for more information.
- This week, Huawei Tweet about The Caked Ape collection has soared the lowest prices for NFTs. Vaguely written tweets do not show how the Chinese telecommunications giant has a relationship with Caked Apes.
- ByteDance-owned short video giant Tik Tok distributed the first NFT collection on Ethereum During October Featuring Detroit rapper Curtis Roche. The company’s efforts are described as “insufficient delivery.” Reportedly did not fulfill that promise To work with famous artists such as Lil Nas X and Grimes.
- Cai Wensheng, the founder of China’s selfie app Meitu, is probably the largest cryptocurrency in China’s tech industry.Not only was he an early investor in Bitcoin, but Meitu Owns up to $ 100 million The value of cryptocurrencies. Meitu purchased the first Bitcoin and Ether tranches in March 2021 for a total of $ 40 million.
