Tencent to stop selling NFTs on its app

16 Aug 2022 , 09:58 AM

As regulatory scrutiny of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) increases in China, Tencent Holdings’ non-fungible token (NFT) platform Huanhe will no longer offer digital collectibles to the general market.

The Huanhe app will stop providing new NFTs to users as of Tuesday, according to the Shenzhen-based startup. Owners of current collectibles, according to the firm, will be able to keep, exhibit, or request a refund for their items.

One of the largest NFT sites in China is Huanhe, where new items sometimes sell out right away after being on sale.

Tencent’s action represents a significant retreat from the NFT industry, which is now the subject of greater scrutiny from Chinese regulators. In recent years, digital collectibles in the form of NFTs have gained popularity around the globe, mostly due to an active, if not extremely speculative, secondary market.

Tech companies like Tencent and Ant Group struck a deal in June to halt the secondary trade of digital artifacts and “self-regulate” their market operations after state media repeatedly raised problems surrounding NFT speculation in the nation.