The U.K. Treasury has ruled against launching a government-backed non-fungible token (NFT) with the goal of establishing the country as a major center for the cryptocurrency industry.
The token was initially intended to be released by U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor in April 2022, but the Royal Mint encountered delays. The Royal Mint previously hinted at plans to use blockchain technology in 2017 to monitor its gold supply. The announcement also included the government’s vision for stablecoins and distributed ledger technologies as part of its strategy for the U.K. financial services industry.
According to a statement released on Monday by the U.K.’s economic secretary Andrew Griffith, the proposals are not moving forward “at this moment,”. But, the proposal will continue to be examined.
According to Harriet Baldwin, the chair of the UK Treasury Select Committee, the government’s senior finance minister will be questioned about whether granting an NFT “remains the policy of his department.”
UK treasury cites crypto unpredictability as the reason for the cancellation
Baldwin, according to the BBC, cited economic unpredictability in the crypto industry as a reason for retiring the collection.
Harriet Baldwin, chair of the UK Treasury Select Committee, said,
“We have not yet seen a lot of evidence that our people should be placing their money in these speculative tokens unless they are prepared to lose all of their money.”
The chair also added that possibly this is the reason the Royal Mint and Treasury decided to make this choice.
Recently, additional world leaders have expressed a desire to adopt NFTs and other Web3 technology. Japan announced intentions to use NFTs and metaverse services to fund the nation’s digital transformation in October. China opened an NFT and digital asset marketplace in January despite the country’s tight cryptocurrency laws.
