Chinese court says NFTs are virtual property protected by law

A court in the Chinese city of Hangzhou has decided that collections of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are online property that needs to be protected by Chinese law.

When the government started to crack down on cryptocurrencies in 2021, non-fungible tokens were left in a legal gray area. This article came out on November 29, and the cryptocurrency blogger Wu Blockchain shared it on December 5. The report was put up by the Hangzhou Internet Court, which is a court that only deals with the internet.

A user of a technology platform sued the company because it didn’t finish a sale and let the user back out of buying an NFT in a “flash sale.” Nobody needs to stand up. The user said that the company made these choices because their name and phone number didn’t match their information. 

This is because, in a paper that came out in May, the Shanghai High People’s Court said that Bitcoin BTC was not a currency. The stock prices fell by $16,835.

Even though it is against the law, there are still rules about property rights that apply to cryptocurrency. In an April statement, the China Banking Association, the China Internet Finance Association, and the Securities Association of China warned the public about the “hidden risks” of investing in non-traditional financial assets (NFTs). According to the statement, the government is still keeping a close eye on people to ensure they don’t “NFT speculation,” according to to report.

Aside from China, the law treats NFTs like property everywhere else. In a case that was heard in October, a judge from the Singaporean High Court compared non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to expensive watches or wine. The court said that NFTs are now carefully looked at by collectors.

Hong Kong is on an island, and because it is so independent, it has always been a way to get to China. But when it comes to cryptocurrencies, there is a catch.

Because Hong Kong is an island city with a lot of freedom, it has always been the “gateway to China” or the area’s commercial center. The common law is based on English law, and the government is very business-friendly, so this is possible. Could the port, where 7 million people live, play a similar role in the business of cryptocurrency? If that’s the case, it would be like the tests being done on the Chinese mainland with cryptocurrency.

Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of BitMEX, gave people a reason to ask these questions in a blog post he wrote on October 26. Almost immediately, many professional and well-known media outlets picked up on the idea.

Christopher Hu, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, discussed fintech plans for the city on October 21. Together, these plans and other projects are meant to “hand down wealth to the next generation.” 

After a few days, people heard about this. It’s essential to ensure that businesses that offer services related to virtual assets follow the law. He said that the city’s government had already been sent a bill. Paul Chan, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, told people at the city’s FinTech Week 2022 on October 31 that his team’s main goal is to make digital financial services more common. 

Eddie Yue runs the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. His job title is “Chief Executive Officer” (HKMA). He works with Chan and has said he will look at the changes with an “extremely open mind.”On the mainland, there will be crackdowns, but nothing will be clear on the island.

China is making it harder to use digital currencies to do business. China happened exactly one year before Hong Kong said it would make it easier to trade cryptocurrencies. In 2021, the People’s Republic of China will still have the highest hash rate and mine the most cryptocurrencies.

After May 2021, it will be against the law in China to work as an exchange or trader. When this ban went into effect on May 20, 2021, banks would no longer be able to do anything with cryptocurrencies. Even though this didn’t make it illegal to hold cryptocurrencies on its own, it stopped the country’s cryptocurrency business from growing so that institutions could support it.

At the time, Hong Kong’s government couldn’t say whether the island city would follow Beijing’s strict rules on digital assets. Still, investors began to think about all their options. is this wise to invest in bitcoin? is accessible to everyone who wants to trade cryptocurrencies.