Chinese Government Launches Official NFT Trading Platform January 1, 2023

China is launching an NFT trading platform. (photo: dock. Pixabay)

JAKARTA - According to local Chinese news media, Sina News, on December 28, the Chinese government will launch the first official platform for trading non-fungible tokens (NFT) on January 1, 2023.

The entity, which acts as a secondary market for NFT exchanges, was created by state-owned China Technology Exchange, state-owned China Art Fair, and Huban Digital Copyrights Ltd, a private corporate entity.

Apart from NFTs, the platform will also facilitate copyright trading related to digital assets. The project aims to "regulate and avoid excessive speculation in the [NFT] secondary market," as told by a person familiar with the matter.

"In terms of industry oversight and regulation, digital assets represent a new form of commerce, and many matters regarding regulatory laws, regulations and policies have yet to be perfected. Therefore, there is a deal of uncertainty. Platforms have clear responsibilities for record-keeping and trading digital assets. With respect to intellectual property rights and digital copyrights, digital assets face greater regulatory health risks," said Yu Jianing, a leading expert on digital assets and metaverse developments in China as quoted by Cointelegraph.

The Hangzhou Internet Court, a law court specializing in internet-related legal disputes in China, previously ruled on November 29 that NFTs are virtual property protected by law. The court also stated that they "possess the object characteristics of property rights such as value, scarcity, control, and trade."

Cryptocurrency exchanges have previously been banned in China since 2021, although the ownership of crypto in the country is still recognized as virtual property protected by law.