China’s state-owned media outlet, Xinhua, to issue NFTs (despite China’s crypto ban)
The official state-run press agency of the People’s Republic of China, Xinhua News Agency, announced it will issue a series of journalistic photos as NFTs, imprinting a “digital memory written in the metaverse.”
Xinhua’s “digital news collectables” will be hosted on a blockchain from Tencent Cloud, a domestic technology company. Xinhua plans to issue 11 photos for free through its news app, each with limited copies of 10,000.
The collection includes photos that journalists took in 2021 which Xinhua say are of “special commemorative significance and collection value,” including pictures from the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party.
The announcement comes after the Chinese government has enacted major restrictions on cryptocurrencies this year, which are also backed by blockchain technologies. Activities such as exchanges, trading, initial coin offerings, transactions, and mining of digital currencies are all prohibited.
NFTs, meanwhile, fall in a legal grey area in China. The government hasn’t specifically labelled NFTs as illegal, yet with all other digital assets using the underlying technology banned, it’s unclear if resale or transaction of the NFTs would be allowed.
