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The U.K. government has confirmed that it is not proceeding with a plan to launch a non-fungible token (NFT). British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asked the Royal Mint to create an “NFT for Britain” while he was serving as the Chancellor of the Exchequer last year as part of his efforts to make the U.K. a global hub for crypto-asset technology and investment.
Britain Drops NFT Plan
Parliament Member Harriett Baldwin, chair of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee and a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer “whether it remains the policy of his department that the Royal Mint issue a non-fungible token.” Wholly owned by His Majesty’s Treasury, the Royal Mint is the official mint of the U.K. and the maker of British coins.
Responding to Baldwin’s question on Monday, Economic Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith stated:
In consultation with HM Treasury, the Royal Mint is not proceeding with the launch of a non-fungible token at this time but will keep this proposal under review.
Rishi Sunak, the current prime minister, asked the Royal Mint to create an “NFT for Britain” in April last year while he was serving as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The project was part of his ambition to make the U.K. a “global hub for crypto-asset technology and investment.”
Commenting on the cancellation of the government’s NFT project, Baldwin said: “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 … So perhaps that is why the Royal Mint has made this decision in conjunction with the Treasury.”
Parliament Member Tulip Siddiq welcomed the decision to drop the NFT project. “I’m glad that the Royal Mint has finally made the Conservatives see sense, but we’ve been calling on the Chancellor to drop this crypto gimmick for months,” she detailed, emphasizing:
This out-of-touch government should be focused on the cost of living crisis, not wasting time and taxpayers’ money on an NFT vanity project and promoting dodgy stablecoins.