China’s Xinhua News Agency is planning to issue non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on news reports. The news agency’s decision to release NFTs comes amid a crypto crackdown in China, whereby policymakers banned all crypto-related transactions. Reportedly, the collectibles will be minted from select news photography reports this year.
According to the news agency, the NFTs will be issued for free through Xinhua News Agency’s app at 8:00 PM on Friday. The digital news collectibles will feature unique identification and ownership information on a blockchain network from Tencent Cloud. Per Xinhua News Agency, the NFTs are of special commemorative significance and collection value.
The agency added that it intends to offer a total of 11 NFTs, and each will be limited to 10,000 units in the first batch. On top of this, the news organization seeks to offer a special edition NFT.
Explaining why it decided to issue NFTs, Xinhua said,
It’s a unique year-end review. Moreover, it’s digital memory written in the metaverse.
Walking on eggshells
While the Chinese government has not outlawed NFTs, they lie in a gray area because participants must exercise caution to prevent attracting unwanted scrutiny. Local firms like Tencent and Ant Group have issued NFTs on alliance chains. These are partially decentralized, hybrid blockchains controlled by a select group of members.
Explaining why such companies have decided to embrace alliance chains, Jay Si, a Shanghai-based attorney previously said,
If someone wants to develop NFTs in China, they have to be decoupled with overseas cryptocurrencies or even the blockchain infrastructure like Ethereum.
With Xinhua’s gearing up to drop its NFTs, it is evident that the nascent digital collectibles industry, which saw global sales volumes hit $10.70 billion in the third quarter of 2021, has caught Beijing’s attention. Before Xinhua, McDonald’s China dropped an NFT to celebrate its 31st anniversary. The NFT was a 3-D piece based on the shape of the organization’s new headquarters building.
NFTs continue catching on in the news world
Apart from Xinhua, other news publications have also embraced NFTs to mark different milestones. For instance, Time Magazine launched an NFT collection dubbed TIMEPieces in September. The collection comprised 4,500 unique pieces from more than 40 artists, and they offered collectors unlimited access to Time’s website.
Before this, Kevin Roose, a journalist with The New York Times, wrote a column about the NFT craze and converted the piece into an NFT. While he thought this NFT might only fetch a few hundred dollars, Roose was stunned when the NFT sold for $560,000. After the auction platform took its cut, he received about $500,000 in his wallet. He donated these funds to The New York Times’ Neediest Cases Fund.
