Ant Group NFT platform punishes 56 accounts for reselling digital collectibles, exercising caution

Topnod, the NFT platform owned by Alipay owner Ant Group, said the accounts will be prevented from transferring NFT ownership after reselling assets for money

Chinese platforms ban the reselling of so-called digital collectibles because of regulatory uncertainty following a cryptocurrency crackdown last year

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Ant Group’s NFT platform Topnod punished 56 accounts for reselling digital collectibles, taking a cautious approach amid regulatory uncertainty in China. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 2:00pm, 24 Feb 2022

Fintech giant Ant Group’s non-fungible token (NFT) platform punished 56 accounts for participating in the resale of digital collectibles for profit, highlighting a fundamental difference between the blockchain-based products in mainland China compared with the rest of the world, where they have become speculative investment assets.

The platform called Topnod, which was spun off from the digital wallet Alipay, said it firmly opposes the resale in any form of digital collectibles, the term often used instead of NFTs in China to dissociate them from cryptocurrencies, which Beijing has banned.

Reselling these collectibles “often carries a risk of fraud and is prone to unhealthy speculation, which is contrary to the positioning of digital collectibles”, Topnod said in a statement on Tuesday.

The punished accounts will be prevented from transferring NFTs, the platform said. It did not specify whether the restrictions would be lifted later.

Ant’s caution reflects its vulnerability to regulatory pressure, as speculative investment activity could lead to disciplinary action. Beijing has been cracking down financial activity that previously lacked regulatory oversight, especially on fintech platforms like Tencent Holdings’ WeChat and Alipay, the mobile payments platform operated by Ant, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.

The government has also shown an increasing intolerance for any bubblelike activity related to crypto products. Beijing pushed out most cryptocurrency mining in the country last year, amid wildly fluctuating prices.

On Topnod, transferring NFTs to a new owner is limited to users who are at least 14 years old and have an authenticated account. An NFT can be gifted only after the first owner has held it for 180 days and cannot be traded for money. For the receiver to transfer it to a third owner, the NFT must be held for at least two years.