Quick take:
- Kweichow Moutai has launched NFTs linked to liquor bottles.
- The Chinese liquor giant said on Saturday the NFTs provide owners with rights to purchase limited-edition liquor in the real world.
- A total of 113,960 Lichun-themed NFTs are in circulation with each linked to one physical bottle of liquor.
Kweichow Moutai has launched a digital collectibles collection of 113,960 non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The Chinese liquor giant said the collectibles will give holders an exclusive opportunity to purchase limited-edition liquor in the real world.
The partially state-owned company is joining a growing list of Chinese companies that have strategically targeted the burgeoning NFT industry with “digital collectibles”, a moniker that seems more acceptable in China that NFTs.
In December 2021, JD.com announced a digital collectibles marketplace, joining the likes of Tencent and Alibaba that had already forayed into the space. However, the NFT industry has since slowed in China amid stringent government regulations.
Last year, Tencent was forced to shut down its NFT business in the country to prevent the secondary trading of NFTs.
This happened after several companies in the country including Baidu and Ant Financial teamed up to set up a self-regulatory committee that would allow companies to offer NFTs to their communities without risking secondary trading.
Kweichow Moutai’s approach is slightly different in the sense its NFTs are tied to physical products.
The company said it will drop NFTs linked to physical products for each of China’s 24 terms with the Lichun-themed NFTs the first of the lot. Moutai is selling 500-millilitre NFT-linked bottles at 2,899 yuan (US$427), while the 100-millilitre bottles are going for 569 yuan.
Overall, the Chinese brewer could net a total of 139 million yuan (over US$20 million) if all bottles on offer are purchased.
Moutai has also launched a gaming experience dubbed Xunfeng Digital World, a digital replica of Moutai winery offered via a mobile app. Fiat buyers can complete in-game tasks to earn NFTs linked to the liquor bottles.
Although NFTs cannot be traded in the game, Xunfeng allows liquor buyers to generate digital collectibles by peer-to-peer trading the in-game tokens, a process that could cost 1,600 yuan.
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