Amid possible shutdown, Tencent’s NFT marketplace slows new releases

Tencent’s non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Huanhe has not issued a new NFT for sale in a month, the first time that no new NFTs have been issued for an entire month since last October. 

See related article: Tencent to cut domestic NFT marketplace team, look overseas: report

Fast facts

• At the end of July, local media cited insider sources that Tencent was going to shut down Huanhe before July 24 and lay off its team, due to regulatory uncertainty.

• The last time Huanhe issued NFTs was on July 8.

• Tencent is considering setting up an NFT market overseas, an internal source said, local media reported.

• Tencent has not publicly responded to the shutdown speculation, nor did it respond to Forkast’s request for comment.

• Due to authorities’ warnings over NFT hype and financialization, Huanhe has not allowed secondary trading of NFTs. Since June, Huanhe has experienced slow sales.

• In May, the Platform and Content Group, one of Tencent’s business units to which Huanhe belongs, began a round of layoffs, slashing 10 percent of its workforce, according to local media reports.

See related article: Covid restrictions drive some Chinese Web 3.0 firms to Singapore