Winter Olympics 2022: Alibaba and Animoca join NFT trend
The Chinese firms have launched digital collectables to coincide with the Beijing Games
Alibaba Group Holding has launched an NFTs series featuring four sports at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics as non-tradeable virtual badges.
According to the South China Morning Post, which is owned by the Chinese tech giant, the four badges will be issued on four different dates during the course of the games. Each badge is limited to 8,888 copies.
The Alibaba’s Winter Olympics digital collectables are only available to Alibaba’s 88VIP members via the Taobao and Tmall online marketplaces. Each collectable is priced at CHY0.01 ($0.16) and will only be sold to mainland Chinese residents over the age of 14 years.
According to the newspaper, the four sports featured on the virtual badges, which depict traditional Chinese ink painting style, are speed skating, aerial freestyle skiing, slopestyle and figure skating. The first badge, featuring a speed skater, sold out soon after it was issued on Saturday 5 February.
To distinguish them from NFTs, which are traded using cryptocurrencines – an asset banned by the Chinese government – Alibaba’s offerings are called ‘digital collectables’. The term is used by other Chinese NFTs issuers such as the tech giants Tencent Holdings and JD.com, which are both releasing non-tradeable collectables to bypass the ban.
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Animoca launches Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the metaverse giant Animoca Brands, unveiled its Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022, the officially licenced play-to-earn multiplayer party game where players compete in a series of winter sports to earn Olympic NFT digital pins.
The officially licenced videogame will let players earn Olympic NFT digital pins that can be traded on the nWayPlay marketplace. The game launched the day before the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
Collectors of the Olympic NFT digital pins can earn them playing Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022, buying assorted boxes on nWayPlay.com or purchasing specific pins directly from other collectors on the nWayPlay marketplace.
“Developed by nWay, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee, Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022 will feature various arcade-styled winter sports where players can weave their way to the head of the pack in Snowboard Cross, pull stylish tricks in Slopestyle, and pick up power-ups in Skeleton,” said the company.
