British Government Ditches NFT Plan
(31 March 2023 – United Kingdom) The United Kingdom (UK) government has scrapped Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's plan for the Royal Mint to issue a non-fungible token (NFT).
In April 2022, then Chancellor Rishi Sunak ordered the Royal Mint to create its own 'NFT for Britain', which he claimed would become “an emblem of the forward-looking approach the UK is determined to take”.
According to UK economic secretary Andrew Griffith plans for a Royal Mint NFT were not moving forward “at this time” and added that his department would keep the proposal “under review”.
The Treasury's initial announcement came as NFTs exploded in popularity, with many reaching multi-million dollar valuations. However, the bottom soon fell out the market amid the general crypto winter and the growing interest of speculators, posers and scammers.
East & Partners is observing corporates struggling to comprehend the opportunities and risks of engaging with distributed ledger technology (DLT), Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and Stablecoin payment solutions: The Great Switch: Major Corporates are Ready for Blockchain – but can Banks Deliver?
"We have not yet seen a lot of evidence that our constituents should be putting their money in these speculative tokens unless they are prepared to lose all their money," said Treasury Select Committee Chair, Harriet Baldwin.
Subscribe