China NFT crackdown: Internet companies deny NFT trading platform launch allegations

As China’s ban on virtual currencies nears the end, the government has now shifted its focus towards cracking down on the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market. In lieu of authorities’ weekend’s notice against NFT trading, Chinese Internet giants, Tencent and Alibaba have denied the allegations about launching their respective NFT trading platforms.

Internet Giants mark NFT market as illegal

According to the Chinese Journalist, Colin Wu, both internet companies agreed to be part of the non-NFT digital collectibles business but denied any relation to the decentralized token industry. The companies noted that NFTs are directly linked to cryptocurrencies that have been banned in the country. Tencent determined that they are committed to the digital collection business laying with the compliance framework provided by the regulators.

They noted that the company’s platform adheres to the government’s rules of complete user verification including real name and content link review, along with a closed status. Digital product transfer between users, and resolutely resist illegal activities related to virtual currencies. Alibaba also followed Tencent’s lead in presenting an argument against the unethical NFTs as they are interlinked with cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, Alibaba compared NFT hype to that of the illegal cryptocurrencies’ hype.

“We firmly oppose all forms of digital collection hype, and resolutely resist any form of illegal activities in the name of digital collections, which are actually virtual currency-related activities; resolutely resist any form of digital collection commodity price malicious Hype, use technical means to ensure that commodity prices reflect the reasonable market demand; resolutely resist any form of illegal activities such as equity transactions and standardized contract transactions in digital collections, and oppose the financial productization of digital collections.”, Alibaba AntChain told Colin Wu.

Last week, the Chinese NFT market saw the government initiate another crackdown by limiting Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to mere digital collectibles. This means that NFTs have been prohibited from being traded for-profit, levying a ban on NFTs as part of the decentralized business. While authorities interviewed Internet companies to assure that NFTs cannot be used as anything other than virtual collectibles, their market was fleeting with speculations of Alibaba and Tencent’s upcoming NFT trading platforms, which has exclusively been denied by both companies.