John Tsang Chun-wah, the city’s longest-serving Financial Secretary, will launch 3,000 non-fungible tokens (NFT) of his portrait, becoming Hong Kong’s first civil servant to profit from the trend.
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Fast facts
- Tsang is the longest-serving Financial Secretary since the handover.
- He lost out to outgoing Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in the 2017 election.
- The former civil servant’s NFT will be minted in collaboration with Japanese artist Yosuke Yamauchi, Tsang said on Monday.
- Tsang is unlikely to be bound by post-service restrictions imposed by Hong Kong on civil servants profiting from their former office.
- The NFT collection’s title of “Choi Yeah”, or “God of Fortune” in Cantonese, is the nickname given to Hong Kong’s financial secretaries.
- Tsang said the owners will be given priority access to his upcoming Web 3.0 project, which is yet to be announced.
- The announcement coincided with Carrie Lam’s decision to step away from public service.
- Tsang claimed the timing had “absolutely nothing to do with other news.”
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