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UK NFT Dropped Over Lack of Demand, Finance Minister Hunt Says
The Royal Mint was asked to create a digital token last year, when NFTs were much more popular.
Updated Mar 29, 2023, 4:58 p.m. Published Mar 29, 2023, 12:23 p.m.
The U.K. government wasn't convinced about the demand for a NFT issued by the Royal Mint, Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt said in a Treasury Committee meeting on Wednesday.
Last April, the Royal Mint was tasked by then-Finance Minister, now Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to create a non-fungible token, but on Monday, the government announced that it decided to drop the highly anticipated project.
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"I think it's a question of demand," Hunt said. "I think we always want to be at the cutting edge in the U.K., in terms of new technology, but the world has changed significantly since then and we're not convinced that the demand is going to be there in the same way."
The NFT sector, which attracted lots of attention from celebrities and the media, peaked in January 2022 with $5 billion in global sales on some days, according to blockchain data tracker CryptoSlam. The most recent 24-hour sales data is just $44.3 million.
The U.K. government to this point has publicly been undeterred by the crypto winter, continuing to insist its crypto hub ambitions remain.
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