Pro-Communist Party News Outlet to Launch an NFT Collection Despite China’s Crypto Stance

The Chinese government has cracked down on cryptocurrency-related activities over the past few years. However, the crackdown intensified this year as the government banned numerous crypto-related activities.

Xinhua to Release News Digital Collectibles

State-run Xinhua News Agency, the biggest media organization in China, has announced that it will release a collection of nonfungible tokens later this week. The NFT collection is set to be launched on Christmas Eve and will be the first news digital collectibles backed by NFTs in mainland China.

According to local reports, Xinhua will launch a total of 110,001 copies of selected news photos for free. There will be 11 collections, each comprising of 10,000 copies and a special edition copy. The NFTs will be available on Xinhua’s mobile app at 8 pm local time on Christmas Eve.

Xinhua said the NFTs would be the country’s first collection of digital journalistic photos issued via a blockchain. The publication said the idea is to imprint digital memories into the metaverse. The digital collection includes photos that journalists took this year, recording historical moments of 2021. Some of the historic moments include the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party.

China’s recent milestone of administering over 2.7 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses nationwide is another moment that would be captured in the NFTs.

Chinese Entities are Entering the NFT Space Despite Crypto Crackdown

This latest development comes at a time when Chinese entities are entering the NFT space. Yesterday, JD.com became the latest Chinese tech giant to launch a digital collectible platform, following the footsteps of Alibaba and Tencent.

The Chinese government increased its crackdown on cryptocurrency-related activities this year. Various provinces in China, including Sichuan, banned cryptocurrency mining activities, forcing mining farms and other independent miners to move to Europe and North America.

The government also went further to ban cryptocurrency trading activities, effectively eliminating the little crypto exchanges still operating in China. As a result, numerous crypto exchanges discontinued their services to mainland China users.

The Chinese government also went after cryptocurrency data websites Coinmarketcap and Coingecko. The data websites are no longer available to people in mainland China following the ban in September.