Leading social media platforms in China have updated their policy to restrict or remove nonfungible tokens (NFTs) platforms, citing a lack of regulatory clarity and fear of government crackdown.WeChat, one of the Chinese social media giants and the WhatsApp equivalent in China reportedly removed several digital collectible platform accounts for violation of the rules. Xhiu No. 1, a digital collection platform and one of the hyped NFT projects in the market, was among the removed platforms. Another platform called Dongyiyuandian has revealed that its official app has been banned, according to a local news source.
WhaleTalk, a digital collectibles platform launched by the tech giant, Ant group, has also updated its policy to increase the penalty for using over-the-counter (OTC) desk for trading NFTs. It is worthy of note that although NFTs are not necessarily prohibited or banned, any form of speculative trading that is associated with collectible digital collectible derived tokens is still illegal. An excerpt from the report translated by Google stated that: “IN THE CONTEXT OF UNCLEAR COMPLIANCE OF DIGITAL COLLECTIONS, MANY PLATFORMS HAVE BEGUN TO ACTIVELY CRACK DOWN ON VIOLATIONS TO PREVENT FURTHER FERMENTATION OF RELATED BEHAVIORS.”
The rise in the amount of illegal transactions and purchases performed by bots associated with NFT platforms have prompted several tech giants to employ precautionary measures. During the wide crypto ban announced in September last year, any firm aiding or involved in crypto transactions or foreign crypto firms were held accountable. Thus, the recent actions of these companies and the updates in user agreement policies appeared to have been made to avoid government crackdown.
The government in Beijing is showing no intentions in banning NFTs 👀
This was one of the key reasons why companies like Alibaba and Tencent filed several new NFT patents over the past year. However, the growing popularity of digital collectibles in China has also made it vulnerable to price speculation and fraud. NFTs play an important role in triggering the price movement of crypto assets. Due to the explosive growth in the popularity of crypto assets, NFT sales reached approximately $25 billion in 2021, according to market tracker Dapp Radar. Despite gaining legal status in countries like Dubai and El Salvador, China remains fairly conservative to the crypto sector.
Image source Tezos 🎯