As we work our way into 2023, the NFT market is already beginning to produce some big stories. Some of the biggest stories in the first week of the year include China, Rolling Stone, and a collaboration between Movieplex and Cinema. Here’s what’s happening:

China Launches State-Sanctioned NFT Trading Platform

China announced the launch of a state-sanctioned NFT trading platform for the secondary market on the first day of the year. This follows a self-imposed ban Tencent, Ant, Baidu, and JD placed on themselves surrounding secondary market trading of digital collectibles in mid-2022. 

So far, users can only sign up for China’s state-owned digital asset trading platform. There’s no clues as to what kinds of NFTs and other digital intellectual property will be supported. What we do know is that the innovation team behind the platform is comprised of tourist organizations, museums, and copyright holders. 

More to come as this story unfolds. 

Rolling Stone Announces MATRIARCHY NOW

Rolling Stone is diving deeper into the metaverse with its coming release of MATRIARCHY NOW. The collection features 11 parts and was developed as part of a partnership with Nadya Tolokonnikova, co-founder of Pussy Riot. Ellen von Unwerth, a popular photographer was also part of the project. 

Rolling Stone will drop the collection next week on January 11 at 3:00 E.T. 

The announcement followed the auction of the 1 of 1 MATRIARCHY NOW NFT. Proceeds from that project were distributed to help women’s reproductive rights. To date, Tolokonnikova’s UnicornDAO project has raised $4.5 million to support this cause as well as other women and LGBTQ-related social causes. 

Movieplex & Cinema Libre to Launch NFT Movies

Finally, Movieplex and Cinema Libre announced that they’re collaborating on a new collection that will be available on OpenSea. According to the announcement, users will soon be able to collect full-length movies as NFTs – which could be the future of owned home entertainment. 

See Ya Next Week

That’s all for today, we’ll see ya next week!