Chinese social media giant Tencent Holdings plans to shut down its non-fungible token (NFT) platform, which launched just one year ago, as Beijing’s strict ban on secondary markets for digital collectibles has largely killed its business potential, reports the South China Morning Post.
The report, which quoted unidentified sources from Tencent, said that Huanhe, the unit that mints and distributes blockchain-based digital collectibles, will close as soon as this week.
If the platform is shut down, it would mark a major retreat by Tencent from the NFT market, which has been under tight scrutiny from Beijing since growing fervour last year ignited a race to develop new trading platforms.