Chinese technology giants join “self-disciplinary initiative” to combat speculation in NFT marketplaces

China’s largest technology companies, including Tencent, Ant Group, Baidu and JD.com, have signed a pact to stop the secondary sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and introduce self-regulatory rules.

According to a Reuters report, 30 companies and entities have signed the “self-regulatory initiative” led by the Chinese Cultural Industry Association, and promise to work together to prevent speculation in digital collectibles.

The Self-Regulation Pact contains a total of 14 articles which stipulate, among other things, that digital collector markets must implement identity checks for users and must not “contain financial assets or unlicensed financial products, including securities, insurance, credit and precious metals, in blockchain-supported goods.” must have relevant certifications, including those required for blockchain service providers, Internet culture operators and telecom operators, NFTs must only be denominated in fiat and not digital currencies.

Jin Peng, general secretary of the China Cultural Industry Association, noted that the pact could help the NFT industry make a more meaningful contribution to the development of China’s real economy. The secretary added that it would also help the use of digital collectibles to promote China’s excellent artistic culture.

“Unlike most foreign platforms that use NFT technology as financial products, domestic digital collections are more seen as the category of digital cultural creativity,” the secretary said.

China’s official stance on digital collectibles

The industry-level initiative is in line with and confirms existing Chinese laws that prohibit speculation in digital assets. China has implemented this ban across companies with digital assets and is blocking reward miners. However, it has allowed NFTs to thrive, but warned against speculation or the involvement of digital assets in their trading.

The accommodation of NFTs has spurred the exploration of NFTs and metaverse projects among Chinese technology giants. Ant Group and Tencent were the first Chinese companies to launch digital collector platforms. JD.com followed shortly after, while Baidu has so far released its own digital collectible collection.

Tencent has bigger plans to use digital collectibles. Last month, the internet and gaming giant revealed that it set up an augmented reality device to explore virtual reality and augmented reality technologies – innovations that form the backbone of the metaverse industry.

This unit will constitute a core aspect of the business as the company wants to expand it despite cost cuts in other divisions. It will also be Tencent’s first attempt at hardware.

See: Presentation of BSV Global Blockchain Convention, Buzzmint: Elevating NFTs

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