UK Treasury Cancels Plans for Government-Backed NFT – The United Kingdom Treasury has abandoned plans to create a government-backed non-fungible token (NFT), which had the goal of turning the United Kingdom into a global centre for cryptocurrency hub.
First proposed by the U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in April 2022, while he was chancellor, the Royal Mint was entrusted with producing the token by the summer of 2022, but suffered delays. The Royal Mint had previously hinted at plans to track its gold supplies using blockchain technology in 2017.
In a statement on Monday, the U.K.’s economic secretary Andrew Griffith said that the plans were not moving forward “at this time” but that the proposal would remain under review. Chair of the Treasury Select Committee Harriet Baldwin said that the government’s chief financial minister would be asked if issuing an NFT “remains the policy of his department.”
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Baldwin reportedly cited economic uncertainty in the cryptocurrency business as a reason for discontinuing the collection, as reported by the BBC. “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 Chair of the Treasury Select Committee Harriet Baldwin. “So perhaps that is why the Royal Mint has made this decision in conjunction with the Treasury.”
Several world leaders have recently indicated a willingness to adopt NFTs and other Web3 technology. In October, Japan stated its intention to invest in the digital transformation of the country through the use of NFTs and metaverse services. China opened a market for NFTs and digital assets in January despite its tight cryptocurrency rules.
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