Benzinga | Oct 25, 2021 10:58AM EDT

Tencent, Alibaba Deny Launching NFT Trading Platforms To Chinese Regulators

Chinese internet giants Tencent Holdings ADR (OTC:TCEHY) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd -- ADR (NYSE:BABA) have denied allegations regarding the launch of NFT trading platforms.

What Happened: On Oct. 23, Chinese journalist Colin Wu reported that regulatory authorities in China had "strengthened the supervision of NFTs" and were questioning several internet companies operating NFT platforms in the region.

However, Chinese Internet companies are actively entering the NFT field. Tencent and Alibaba have both opened NFT trading platforms. https://t.co/kZtLFo5rEB, McDonald's China, and DHL China have just issued their first NFTs.

-- Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 23, 2021

Among these were Tencent, Alibaba, JD.com Inc (NASDAQ:JD), McDonald's Corp (NYSE:MCD) China and DHL China, part of Deutsche Post ADR (OTC:DPSGY).

On Oct. 8, McDonald's China released its first NFT creative work titled "Big Mac Rubik's Cube" in commemoration of its 31st anniversary of operating in mainland China.

Last week, DHL China partnered with VeChain (CRYPTO: VET) to allow users to mine customized DHL mascots as NFTs.

On Monday, representatives from Tencent and Alibaba responded to Wu stating that their business has "nothing to do with NFTs."

Wu reported the word "NFT" on Tencent's Phantom Core and Alibaba's Ant Tablet had been replaced with the words "digital collections."

"We firmly oppose all forms of digital collection hype, and resolutely resist any form of illegal activities in the name of digital collections, which are actually virtual currency-related activities; resolutely resist any form of digital collection commodity price malicious hype, use technical means to ensure that commodity prices reflect the reasonable market demand; resolutely resist any form of illegal activities such as equity transactions and standardized contract transactions in digital collections, and oppose the financial productization of digital collections," said a spokesperson for Alibaba AntChain to Colin Wu in a statement.

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