As China’s crypto ban bites, NFTs thrive in Hong Kong
The WISe.ART platform will auction off an NFT of the world’s first paper money created in China
While China’s crypto ban is devastating the crypto industry on the mainland, the Asian NFT industry is still flourishing as collectors and investors move to Hong Kong.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique digital files stored on a blockchain – and artworks created as NFTs are proving to be the latest form of collectables, with prices soaring into the millions.
The recent online NFT auction by Christie’s in Hong Kong, No Time Like Present, saw interested collectors not just from Hong Kong but the US, Switzerland and Taiwan.
Sotheby’s auction
Meanwhile, on 30 September Sotheby’s will start a four-day sale of Machine Hallucinations – Space: Metaverse, a collection from digital media artist Refik Anadol.
And on 9 October, the auction house will be selling an NFT of behind-the-scene footage from the first day of shooting the movie In the Mood for Love, starring award-winning actors Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung Man-yuk.
Perhaps the most interesting auction is yet to come, however.
The Jiaozi NFT
The WISe.ART platform will soon auction off a historical NFT of the world’s first paper money created in China in 1024, issued by the Jiaozi Affairs, the earliest central bank, which operated for more than 400 years. Marco Polo introduced the concept of paper money to Europe roughly 200 years later in the late 13th century.
The Jiaozi NFT is the digital twin of that first government-issued paper currency.
The NFT will seal a joint venture between the Hong Kong-based Chinese Museum of Finance and WISekey, a Swiss global cyber-security company, to launch the WISe.ART NFT platform to offer trusted NFTs.
