The emergence of non-fungible tokens has caused a real stir in the global art market, with a buzz around earth-shattering sales in NFT collectibles and NFT artists getting rich. Will NFTs merely enjoy an ephemeral popularity like most cultural fads, or are they around for the long-term? Presenting a positive outlook, speakers at the Asian Finance Forum 2022 on Tuesday said that NFTs are here to stay and that cryptocurrencies are key to sustaining their use in the art market. NFTs have a unique identifier that can be used to prove ownership of any form of digital item. They can transform digital works of art and other collectibles into one-of-a-kind, verifiable assets that are easy to trade in the blockchain. At the afternoon panel of the AFF, co-organized by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Hong Kong Trade Development Council and China Daily, on the topic “Innovation Investment in NFT — Trends and Opportunities”, Francis Belin, president of Christie’s Asia Pacific, said he believes NFTs will become a long-term fixture in the art market. “The innovation of NFTs is here to stay and a new industry will stay growing.” An essential reason for this is that the tokens allow those in the art market to transact digital art creations safely. Moreover, NFTs have proved attractive to young and crypto-savvy audiences who weren’t previously acquainted with art investment. Christie’s, the first auction house to sell NFT art, sold more than 100 NFT artworks last year, amounting to a whopping $150 million in sales. In one online auction, a digital artwork titled “Everydays — The First 5000 Days”, created by Beeple, sold for $69 million, overtaking auction records for physical pieces of art. And almost half of the NFT sales at Christie’s were made by collectors under the age of 40. While NFTs, at core, are a technology that exists on the blockchain, what they represent to the art market is a new form of art consumption, said Warren Cheng, director of Fine Art Asia and Wui Po Kok, who is a staunch supporter of NFTs. Creators, collectors Not only do NFTs open up new creative possibilities to artists, they also increase the engagement level that creators can have with collectors, Cheng said. “The NFT craze has created a new community of native NFT buyers who are used to paying loyalty and guest fees,” Cheng said. While this cohort takes NFT art buying in their stride, there’s “hesitance, resistance and a slow reaction” to NFTs among more traditional players in the art market, he observed, because these players don’t know how to use cryptocurrencies. Their resistance, he reasoned, also comes down to uncertainty about where NFT artworks stand within the value chain. As an art fair director and a gallery owner himself, Cheng believes that the value-add lies in how well art fairs and galleries can present NFT artworks to the public and inform creators about how to leverage NFTs as a tool to elevate their art to a higher notch. “That’s why we hold discussion panels and theme-based sessions,” he said. Fine Art Asia, which was the first major fine art fair to host an NFT exhibition in 2021, is ahead of the curve, exhibiting both antique and contemporary artworks. “The juxtaposition of different categories of art can spark new perspectives and new interests in viewing art,” Cheng added. As the owner of Wui Po Kok gallery, Cheng designed NFTs around a collection of antique weapons to appeal to a younger audience. For example, a dagger from 2,000 years ago was minted with about 30 NFTs around it, with each NFT granting either the right to view or to bid. “For players in the art market, they’ve never thought that antiques could be packaged like this, and for those who are into NFTs and cryptos, they are surprised and curious to learn more about antiques and history,” he said. According to Les Borsai, chief strategy officer at Wave Financial: “The world is vast right now in terms of what opportunities are ahead of us, and it’s a really great time to be able to create and have that kind of imagination. I don’t really see anything slowing it down.” It’s heartening to see that a lot of traditional galleries and art museums are striving to investigate how NFTs might fit into their agenda, he said. “When galleries are trying to figure out how to be part of a secondary sale, that’s what all this technology allows for.” People’s strong sentiment regarding crypto-art investment is sure to sustain NFTs in the art market. Cheng gives an anecdotal but convincing example. Six or nine months ago, the trading volume of NFTs was closely related to the price level of Ethereum. In the past few weeks, Ethereum has dropped in value, however trading in NFTs has continued. “I’ve asked a lot of people around me how they see it. They said, “Yes, Ethereum has dropped, but if I find an interesting project that can go four or five times higher, why should I care about the 20 percent slump?” Cheng said. To sustain the existence of NFTs in the art market even longer, utility of cryptocurrency has to be created. It’s not the currency per se that matters. It’s the value that currency allows and “can create through trade and exchange of services” that counts, Belin said. “I think at the end of the day, we being humans, will look back at what we can get from NFTs from all sorts of transactions,” Cheng added. HK a global crypto hub Looking ahead, Cheng believes Hong Kong can become a global hub for digital assets. The city has one of the highest percentages of people in the world that hold and also trade in cryptocurrencies, he said. As most virtual assets are based on cryptocurrencies, a high ratio of people holding cryptos provides huge potential. At the same time, he noted, the use of cryptocurrencies is a barrier for traditional art players and galleries, which have difficulty in jumping on the bandwagon. Cheng added that a firm regulatory framework in Hong Kong will be very important if the city is to become the main hub for virtual assets, but right now that’s “kind of up in the air”. Contact the writers at jenny@chinadailyhk.com

HONG KONG – The growing popularity of non-fungible tokens in recent years is offering new opportunities to those in the art and creative industries who can cater to a new type of collectors, experts said during an online forum on NFTs on Tuesday. Participants in the China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable discussed some innovative ideas that are attuned to the evolving consumer market. These include creative licensing, using NFTs for online games, and making digital collectibles based on antique weapons. The panel discussion, which revolved around the theme “Innovation Investment in NFT – Trends and Opportunities” is part of the two-day Asian Financial Forum. The annual event, which concluded Tuesday, was organized by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. NFTs refer to unique and non-interchangeable units of data stored on a blockchain. They are often associated with digital files of artworks, video and audio. The NFT market has seen a 10-fold increase between 2018 and 2020. In the past few years most of the publicity surrounding NFTs revolved around its use as a digital representation of artwork. In 2021, London-based auction house Christie’s sold a digital work of art - Everydays: The First 5000 Days - for a record $69 million. According to Christie’s, the artwork, created by American graphic artist Mike Winkelmann who is known professionally as Beeple, was the third-highest price achieved by a contemporary artist. Francis Belin, president of Christie’s Asia Pacific, said it was an honor for Christie’s to be the first international auction house to sell an NFT and that it will continue to curate and present the best of art and NFTs to collectors around the world. “NFT in the art space is definitely here to stay,” Belin said. “The reason why we see its explosion in that category is because technology is here. We have ideas of creativity, and art that has been created not only for design drawings, but also music, video, and the range of creativity that digital as a medium can bring.” Les Borsai, co-founder and chief strategy officer of the United States-based digital asset management firm Wave Financial, said: “It’s a really great time to be able to create and have that kind of imagination, and I don’t see anything slowing down NFT. Everyone is trying to find their place in the NFT world in areas like sports, music and film, and even traditional art galleries and museums are trying to figure out how NFT fits into their agenda.” Borsai, who joined the discussion via online video, said while NFTs are usually associated with artworks, he noted that “NFTs are not just about art”. For example, he said NFTs are used to create avatars in online games and American rapper 2 Chainz has produced the animated series The Red Ape Family built on NFTs. Borsai also cited the RTFKT art studio that created virtual sneakers. Warren Cheng, director of Fine Art Asia, Asia’s leading fine art fair, said traditional players in the art market such as gallerists and art fair organizers are a “bit hesitant and resistant” to NFTs. “The main obvious obstacle is the use of cryptocurrency,” he said. “It is quite hard for traditional players to open the wallet to get the cryptocurrency. When they do receive, how to convert that into fiat (money) and back into the bank account? That’s always the question I have been asked. I think their resistance to that at core level comes down to, they don’t know where they stand in the whole value chain, and now NFTs are here.” Cheng said the rise of NFTs represents “a new way of art consumption”. This is because unlike traditional art collectors who usually go to galleries and art fairs to buy artworks, NFT collectors go to online markets like OpenSea where they can buy directly from artists and creators who can mint their artworks in the blockchain. “If artists or creators can mint NFTs in the blockchains so easily, and the marketplace is so user-friendly, where in the value chain do art fairs or galleries stand? What is their value-add? As a director of the art fair and owner of the gallery myself, I ask that question to my team every day, and I believe our value-add lies in the role we can play, and that is a place where collaboration can happen,” he said. Cheng is the founder of Wui Po Kok, a Hong Kong-based gallery that specializes in ancient Chinese art. He said his gallery is appealing to this new type of art collector by launching an NFT collectible based on antique weapons. “What we did was, we chose a piece of antique. It was a dagger from 2,000 years ago. And then we minted NFTs around it. Each NFT (holder) has special rights to the piece of antique (weapon) … the right to view the antique and then the right to bid on the antique if they want to buy it. So essentially, if you are an NFT holder you have access to it,” Cheng said. He said this NFT collectible allowed his gallery to repackage and sell ancient art. Cheng is also exploring how to offer NFTs through play-to-earn games, noting that “some of the most exciting or the biggest role-playing games, or even movies that we’ve seen, they have the roots based on ancient times, myths or fantasies”. Contact the writer at prime@chinadailyapac.com

For Immediate Release PRESS RELEASE HONG KONG, Jan. 11, 2022 – Co-organized by China Daily and the Asian Financial Forum, a panel discussion session themed “Innovation Investment in NFT – Trends and Opportunities” was held virtually today. The session attracted about 280 investment project owners, private equity firms, collectors, and investors to join online. In recent years, non-fungible tokens have continued to gain popularity in different segments including collectibles, art, sports, and gaming. According to Statista, there was a 10-fold increase in the NFT market between 2018 and 2020. Brandessence Market research reported a growth of 328 percent in NFT transactions during the first three quarters of 2021. Over £50 million ($67.94 million) of Beeple’s NFT digital art was sold at Christie’s. NFT-related sales in the art segment in 2021 accounted for $1.9 billion, while the total number of NFT sales in collectibles, sports, and art in the first six months of 2021 were $367,129; $299,684; and $124,188 respectively. What are the evolving market trends and business opportunities in NFTs? How do NFTs create value for businesses? What will be the future development of NFTs? Moderated by Mr. Azam Khan, Anchor, Multimedia Program, China Daily Hong Kong, the panelists included Mr. Francis Belin, President, Christie’s Asia Pacific, Mr. Les Borsai, Chief Strategy Officer, Wave Financial and Mr. Warren Cheng, Director, Fine Art Asia and Wui Po Kok. Mr. Francis Belin thinks that what NFT is bringing to digital art was the easiest thing on earth to copy, and technology needed to be transacted in a flawless way. “So we talked about scans, we talked about some of the risks that are associated with NFTs, but first and foremost, we finally can transact safely and can transact digital artists’ 50 years of digital art creation,” he said. He said that NFT in the art space is definitely here to stay. The reason we see its explosion in that category is because technology is here. He said that we have ideas of creativity, and art that has been created not only for design drawings, but also music, video, and the range of creativity that digital as a medium can bring. The reservoir of creativity that the digital space is bringing to the world can find its platform, its ways and its means to be transacted. “What people do not or often fail to realize is that these very antiques existed in that time. For me, it is really exciting to be able to bridge those worlds. And NFT being a fundamental part of the Metaverse kind of realm. That’s something that I’m hoping to explore in the future.” said Mr. Francis Belin. He said that sentiment is what’s been sustaining the type of NFT hype, while the underlying currency is dropping. But going forward, it will not be like that. It will be the utility of NFTs that you can use in Metaverse or in real life, and that will be what’s been sustaining the price level of setting NFTs. Mr. Francis Belin indicated that NFTs are scary for the traditional players in the art world because there’s so much information out there. They don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong. They don’t know how to avoid being scammed. They stay on the sides and then watch the industry evolve to become something they don’t know. “But if we just have an open heart, which looks deep into things that we understand, like what Francis said about utility, at the end of the day, everything comes down to utility, even currency, even money comes down to what utility you can get out of it, ” he said. He said, “I think at the end of the day, us being humans, we look back at what we can get from NFT from all sorts of transactions, we can see if that makes sense to us. If it does, I think it’s important for us to get to know this new tool, and jump on it and see where it can take us. ” Mr. Les Borsai said,“ It’s a really great time to be able to create and have that kind of imagination, and I don’t see anything slowing down NFT. Everyone is trying to find their place in the NFT world in areas like sports, music and film, and even traditional art galleries and museums are trying to figure out how NFT fits into their agendas. It’s really interesting to see these worlds collide because it’s really a very different initiative. It’s a generational income revolution, a concern and an innovation.” He indicated that we are going to see more and more kinds of real-life experiences, also merging spaces, and that’s what makes NFT so exciting because this new technology can be so many things to so many different people. “You can have centralized versions that are collectibles and sports cards. and also decentralized versions. You just have this huge implosion and conversion of the imagination, and it’s going to be like a really great time to be able to create and find it yourself to see how it impacts a lot of old businesses,” he said. Mr. Warren Cheng thinks that the reactions of the traditional players in galleries and art fairs are quite slow and a bit hesitant and resistant to the trend of NFTs. He said that the main obvious obstacle is the use of cryptocurrency. It is quite hard for traditional players to open their wallet to get the cryptocurrency. When they do receive, how can they convert that into fiat (money) and back into the bank account? “That’s always the question I have been asked. I think their resistance to that at core level comes down to, they don’t know where they stand in the whole value chain, and now NFTs are here,” he said. “If artists or creators can mint NFTs in the blockchains so easily, and the marketplace is so user-friendly, where in the value chain do art fairs or galleries stand? What is their value-add? As a director of the art fair and owner of the gallery myself, I ask that question to my team every day, and I believe our value-add lies in the role we can play, and that is a place where collaboration can happen,” he said. About China Daily Founded in 1981, China Daily covers 360 million readers and users worldwide through diversified platforms, including newspapers, websites, mobile devices, and social media. The number of China Daily’s followers has now reached 61.7 million on Weibo, 13 million on the WeChat blog platform, 104.2 million on Facebook, and 4.3 million on Twitter. About the China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable The China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable is a by-invitation network of movers and shakers in Asia, providing platforms for focused dialogue, issue investigation and possible collective action on strategic issues relating to Asia’s economic, business, and social development. Our aim is to enhance communication and increase mutual understanding among China, Asian countries, and Western countries. Roundtable events are held in major cities across Asia.

新聞稿 即時發佈 2022年1月11日香港電 中國日報與亞洲金融論壇合辦題為“非同質化代幣創新投資：趨勢與機遇”的專題研討會今日在線舉行，吸引近300名投資項目擁有人、私募基金公司、投資者、藝術品收藏家及金融界人士在線參會。 亞洲金融論壇旨在為全球政府、金融及商界領袖提供平台，促進交流真知灼見及發掘投資商機。論壇為期兩日，由香港特區政府與貿易發展局合辦，今年主題為“引領未來新常態 邁向可持續發展” ，香港特別行政區行政長官林鄭月娥、全國政協經濟委員會主任尚福林、亞洲基礎設施投資銀行行長兼董事會主席金立群、中國銀保監會副主席肖遠企、中國證監會副主席方星海、德意志銀行董事長保羅·阿赫萊特納（Paul Achleitner）及香港特別行政區財政司司長陳茂波等來自80多個國家及地區的政府、金融及商界領袖共同交流探討投資商機。 本次專題研討會已是中國日報與亞洲金融論壇連續11次合作，邀請佳士得亞太區總裁龐智鋒（Francis Belin）、Wave Financial 聯合創始人兼首席戰略官萊斯·波爾賽（Les Borsai）、典亞藝博及匯寶閣總監鄭維揚擔任討論嘉賓，中國日報香港版多媒體主播阿扎·姆汗（Azam M Khan）擔任主持，共同探討非同質化代幣的最新趨勢和機遇。 鄭維揚指出，畫廊和藝術博覽會的傳統“玩家”在應對 NFT 趨勢時反應較慢，顯得猶豫和抗拒。加密貨幣的使用困難成為人們接受NFT時的主要障礙，因為加密貨幣與傳統貨幣不同，傳統“玩家”無法通過打開錢包來獲取加密貨幣，所以如何將加密貨幣轉換成法定貨幣，並存入銀行成為一大難題。 鄭維揚認為，傳統“玩家”抗拒加密貨幣的主要原因是，當NFT已經出現的時候，他們還並不清楚自己在整個價值鏈中的處境。同時人們應該深思，如果藝術家能輕易在區塊鏈中創作NFT作品，整個市場也對用戶友好，那麽藝術博覽會和畫廊在價值鏈中的處境如何？ 龐智鋒認為， NFT在藝術領域的蓬勃發展得益於科技。我們不僅有創意理念，更有繪畫、音樂和視頻等現存藝術，以及數字媒介帶來的種種藝術形式。 龐智鋒說：“因為NFT信息繁雜，對藝術界的傳統“玩家”來說並不友好，他們不知如何辨別真偽。他建議，人們要有開放的心態，去深入研究所理解的事物，回顧在NFT的各種交易中得到了什麽，是否有意義。” 萊斯•波爾賽說：“現在是進行創作的大好時代，沒有任何東西能放緩NFT的前進步伐。大家都嘗試在NFT世界中找到自己的“一席之地”，比如體育、音樂和電影領域等，甚至傳統藝術展覽和博物館也試圖融入NFT發展大勢。不同領域的“碰撞”非常有意思，這會成為時代性的創收革命、成為人們關注的焦點以及創新重舉。” 萊斯•波爾賽認為在NFT世界，我們將有更多真實生活般的體驗，也會看到各領域的不斷融合，這種新興科技帶給大家“千人千面”的體驗，這便是NFT的魅力所在。 非同質化代幣（NFT）是一種被稱為區塊鏈數字賬本上的數據單位，每個代幣可以代表一個獨特的數字數據，作為虛擬商品所有權的電子認證或憑證，近年在收藏品、藝術、體育和遊戲等不同領域廣受歡迎。 有關中國日報 中國日報是中國國家英文日報，是中國走向世界、世界了解中國的重要窗口，已形成全球化、分眾化、多語種、全媒體傳播體系，全媒體用戶總數超過3.5億。中國日報客戶端目前全球下載用戶超過3600萬，是我國唯一下載量過千萬的英文新聞客戶端；微博粉絲數超過7000萬；微信訂閱人數達1300萬；臉譜賬號粉絲數超過1.04億，位居全球媒體賬號粉絲數第二位；推特賬號粉絲數約430萬。 有關中國日報亞洲領袖圓桌論壇 中國日報亞洲領袖圓桌論壇（www.cdroundtable.com）, 創建於2010年，旨在搭建一個由亞洲國家和地區的政、商、學界領袖和社會精英參與的高端對話和交流平台，圍繞亞洲地區經濟、商業、產業和社會發展等具有戰略影響的重要議題展開討論和分享見解，以增進中國與亞洲國家和西方國家的交流和理解。迄今，在港澳和亞太多個國家和地區舉辦逾105屆，逾6萬名決策精英直接參會。 有關亞洲金融論壇 亞洲金融論壇（AFF）為全球政府、金融及商界領袖提供交流真知灼見及發掘投資商機的平台。超過66,000名觀眾匯聚2021年的亞洲金融論壇，探索引導思維和建立人脈網絡，並體驗嶄新的金融科技新一代的商業理念。