Metaverse and NFT gain traction in China despite Beijing’s wariness, as media firm 36kr issues ‘digital collectibles’
- The metaverse-themed digital collectibles from 36kr share many essential traits with NFTs in that they cannot be duplicated and are limited in supply
- Tencent deleted NFT labels from a new app last month, saying they were different from ‘unregulated NFT businesses in overseas markets’
Chinese media firm 36kr Holdings gave away 1,124 metaverse-themed digital collectibles at a conference in Shenzhen on Wednesday, in the latest sign of growing interest in digital assets in China despite Beijing’s wariness of non-fungible tokens (NFT) and the metaverse.
The limited-quantity digital collectibles, issued jointly with Chinese social media and gaming giant Tencent Holdings, were “gifted” to the conference attendees.
However, the “extremely valuable collectibles” cannot be sold or traded, Nasdaq-listed 36Kr said in a statement, in an apparent move to avoid regulatory scrutiny as Chinese authorities consider digital asset trading as a potential threat to financial stability.
The digital collectibles from 36kr share many essential traits with NFTs in that they cannot be duplicated and are limited in supply.
The announcement is the latest in ongoing developments which reflect the tight rope that China’s Big Tech companies have to walk in exploring emerging areas such as NFT and the metaverse, where regulatory concerns over capital flight and data security hamstring their ability for experimentation.
In August, Tencent launched an app called Magic Nucleus to push NFT products, but deleted NFT labels from the app last month, replacing them with the term “digital collectibles”, saying the platform’s “business logic” was completely different from “those unregulated NFT businesses in overseas markets”.