The United Kingdom Treasury, also known as His Majesty (HM) Treasury, has dashed Rashi Sunak’s hopes of the government-backed NFT collection.
The United Kingdom government has dropped the plans to launch “NFT for Britain,” a government-backed non-fungible token (NFT) collection.
The plan was initially proposed by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rashi Sunak, in April 2022 while serving as the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the government’s chief financial minister).
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Sunak asked the Royal Mint to launch the “NFT for Britain” collection as part of the efforts to make the United Kingdom a global hub for cryptocurrency technology and investment. The project launch was initially scheduled for the summer of 2022. However, the project failed to meet the initial deadline.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has asked Royal Mint UK to create an NFT to be issued by the summer. This decision shows the forward-looking approach we are determined to take toward crypto assets in the UK.
On March 27th, the chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Harriett Baldwin, asked Andrew Griffith, Economic Secretary of the Treasury, whether his department was continuing with the plan to launch the Royal Mint-issued NFT collection. Andre Griffith replied:
In consultation with HM Treasury, the Royal Mint is not proceeding with the launch of a Non-Fungible Token at this time but will keep this proposal under review.
Talking about the issue, Harriet Baldwin highlighted the risk of investing in volatile NFT assets as a major reason the Treasury could have decided to shelve the project.
The advocates of the “NFT for Britain” did not elaborate clearly on the specific function of the NFT collection. Instead, it was stated during its announcement that more details would be communicated “soon.”
Meanwhile, other leaders, including Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, have questioned Sunak’s priorities, claiming that there are more important and urgent issues that the government should take up, such as the high cost of living.
In other UK-related news, at the beginning of March, UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Chair Ashely Alder urged UK Parliament to implement tighter rules for the crypto industry.
