China’s Tech Giants: Yes on NFTs, No on Cryptocurrencies

Tencent, JD and Alibaba pledge to not touch virtual currencies when operating their NFT marketplaces.

article-image

Tencent office tower in Shenzen, China; Source: Shutterstock

share

key takeaways

  • Three of China’s major tech giants signed a self-regulatory pledge over the weekend to not associate their burgeoning NFT marketplaces with cryptocurrencies
  • Tencent, JD and Alibaba pledge brand NFTs as “virtual collectibles”, avoiding the wrath of regulators, for now

China state media reported that three of China’s major tech giants have signed a self-regulatory pledge to keep their growing NFT marketplaces away from cryptocurrencies, eschewing the usual language used by their western counterparts. 

Cryptocurrency is on rocky ground in China, as regulators have reinforced their position that bitcoin is without legal standing. However, when it comes to NFTs, the country’s regulators are giving marketplaces some room to operate, provided the assets’ speculative nature is curtailed. Earlier this month, Alibaba and Tencent virtual marketplaces decided to play down the connections between their NFT collections and cryptocurrencies by instead renaming them as “virtual collectibles” and playing down the NFT terminology. 

The recently signed agreement by Tencent, JD and Alibaba, known as the “Digital Culture and Creative Industries Self-Regulation Convention” is made up of 11 points that align with Beijing’s broader goals for the digital economy. They include “preventing money laundering, promising dissociation with virtual currency, upholding consumers rights, and promoting national culture” among others. 

China’s Blockchain Service Network, its national infrastructure to promote blockchain technology for both government and private sector use, is also in the process of launching an NFT marketplace, although it is also playing down the connections in terminology to cryptocurrency by instead promoting its own term: “digital distributed certificate”. 

At the same time, Huobi, which is not a signatory to the agreement, announced today that it is launching its own NFT market called Huobi NFT as part of its own broader metaverse strategy. 

“Huobi has been working on projects in the GameFi and NFT markets, so the launch of the Huobi NFT marketplace has been in the works for some time. We look forward to introducing this project to our global community,” Jeff Mei, Director of Strategy at Huobi Group, said in a release
Huobi recently shut down its China-based derivatives trading desk as part of a strategic withdrawal from the China market, given the uncertain legal environment around digital asset trading within the country.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template.jpg

Research

The BitcoinOS team is the first to have developed and posted a ZK-compressed proof on the Bitcoin network. Other proof verification efforts have been limited to the Signet or testnet deployments. Their work has resulted in the development of BitSNARK, a software library for ZK-compressed fraud proofs on the Bitcoin network. The project aims to provide a horizontal scaling solution, offering a one-stop shop for teams interested in developing a rollup on Bitcoin. This approach shares similarities with the horizontal tech stack scaling in other ecosystems like Cosmos and Optimism, particularly in its focus on simplified verification, bridging standards, and lightweight interoperability.

/

article-image

A16z’s State of Crypto report shows that DeFi has the largest number of daily active addresses, with stablecoins following closely behind

article-image

G2 is delivering real-world performance breakthroughs at 50-100 Mgas/s, Conduit says

article-image

World Liberty Financial’s token sale debuted just as an absurd AI-fueled memecoin captured crypto’s attention

article-image

Coinbase hired History Associates in 2023 to assist in retrieving records from the SEC and FDIC

article-image

Hours after pledging to support Black men’s rights to safely invest in crypto, VP Harris’s Monday night speech mentioned blockchain zero times