- China has hinted at launching a regulated NFT marketplace in January 2023
- The platform is controlled by two state-owned and one private entity
- The platform aims to supervise and regulate NFT trading on the secondary market
China has disclosed plans to launch its first regulated NFT marketplace in January 2023 to control the prices of digital collectibles on the secondary market. Known as the China Digital Asset Trading Platform, the exchange will be controlled by two state agencies, Chinese Technology Exchange and Art Exhibitions China, with Huban Digital Copyrights Ltd., a private entity, also helping with the launch. As well as NFTs, the marketplace will also allow the exchange of property rights and digital collectibles.
NFTs Are Property
A report by Sina News revealed that the digital collectibles marketplace is powered by a decentralized platform known as China Cultural Protection Chain. China largely views virtual assets as digital holdings but the rules governing their exchange often contain gray areas which translate to regulatory opaqueness.
Last month, the country’s Internet Court recognized that NFTs have value, tradeability, and controllability, and thus fell into the category of property. Available information indicates that the full list of tradable items and the rules governing the exchange of the items on the platform are yet to be finalized. The rules will likely touch on the trading time and how to curb artificial price pumping in a virtual setting.
NFT Platform Brings Hope
According to China Mobile director Chen Xiaohua, the state’s involvement in the project will gradually bring legal clarity to the Chinese virtual currency market, ushering in a stage of healthy and sustainable development in the space. Legal gray areas in the country’s crypto industry have led to a blanket ban on crypto mining and the exit of cryptocurrency exchanges, causing havoc on the global cryptocurrency market.
With China being a major crypto market before the ban, the launch of a state-regulated NFT platform is likely to ignite the next bull run in the NFT and crypto spaces. However, we are yet to see whether it’ll allow NFT trading using crypto, fiat or the country’s digital yuan.
