Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) featuring Chinese late Qing dynasty painter Wu Changshuo’s artwork debuted on Tencent’s Huanhe NFT platform on Thursday with all 28,000 copies selling out immediately after the drop, reflecting a still robust market for such assets in China.
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Fast facts
- The Wu Changshuo NFTs, originally priced at 128 yuan (US$19.21) each, are currently available on Xianyu, China’s major second-hand goods online marketplace, for around 450 yuan to 500 yuan apiece.
- Born in 1844, Wu Changshuo was a prominent painter, calligrapher and seal artist. He died in 1927.
- Wu’s work was once sold for HK$18.25 million (US$2.3 million) in December 2020, according to auction house Christie’s. He continues to enjoy a strong fan following.
- Though China has yet to set clear regulations for NFT trading in the country, state-backed entities have criticized their flipping.
- Despite Beijing’s rhetoric against speculation in NFTs, some in mainland China are trading on WeChat groups, spawning an industry that caters to the fervor over the asset class.
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