From Shenzhen: With crypto banned, how do NFTs work in China?
By Jianqin Lin
You’ve probably been hearing of NFTs a lot these days. And I do want to bring something new from China’s perspective — — as you might know, crypto mining and trading are forbidden in China, so how can NFTs exist in a crypto-free environment? What’s the NFT landscape in China? How is it different from what is happening in the West? If you are a brand interested in experimenting with an NFT-related strategy in China, what do you need to know before making the move into the space?
Do you know that the first off-line NFT exhibition was in Beijing? In March, UCCA Labs and BCA studio put together an NFT show featuring work including Beeple’s $69m “Everydays — The First 5000 Days” and work by 60+ artists including Robert Alice, and DJ deadmau5. The show was curated by Sun Bohan, the CEO of BlockCreateArt.
NFT Exhibition BCA
Block Creat Art, the Beijing-based studio behind the NFT exhibition aiming to create a crypto ecosystem just raised $2m in funding. The company launched its NFT platform MetaOpus that allows NFT enthusiasts to buy, collect and sell artwork.
On the other side, it is not surprising to see Chinese tech giants venturing into the NFT space. Tencent launched a digital NFT marketplace 幻核 “huanhe” with its debut sales featuring 300 audio NFTs based on a talk show — 十三邀 (Shisanyao). The platform allows brands, IP owners, and artists to mint NFTs of their artworks in the forms of video, audio, and others. However, the platform does not plan to open to the general public to distribute NFT works.
Similarly, Alibaba launched its NFT auction platform that allows artists to sell the copyright of their work. Its affiliated company, Ant Group launched 8,000 limited-edition NFTs based on two pieces of artwork to commemorate the ancient artwork from the Dunhuang Caves, which is home to some of the finest Buddhist artwork. The company also partnered with the Europe 2020 soccer championship to introduce the Top Scorer NFT. The auction platform is powered by 光笺(Guangjian) by Bit Universe, with users able to access the platform through Alipay, Alibaba’s digital wallet.
Alibaba’s Guangjian
Tencent’s Huanhe
Two major differences between the NFT platforms in China and those in the West: first, NFTs bought on Alibaba and Tencent’s platforms are not open to secondary trading. By doing this, the platforms blocked the ways that players may speculate on NFT prices.
Secondly, in a crypto-free world, tech giants have built tokenless blockchains that use the Chinese yuan rather than Ethers or other cryptocurrencies as payment to bypass the strict regulation in crypto trading and mining. While downplaying the financial aspect of the NFTs, companies often brand it as a way to support creators.
If you are interested in talking more about NFT strategy in China or just your China strategy in general, please feel free to reach out! Btw, my teammates Drew and Leon have a good read about why brands should care about NFTs. Check it out.
And for more information and tweets about Radicle China — please follow me @jianqianlin
—
Radicle’s Debrief framework helps you understand and validate a new market in 30 days — Learn more.
