중국의 블록체인 정책과 NFT 규제 동향

Abstract

In contrast to the Chinese government's strict ban on the issuance and trading of virtual assets, Chinese big tech companies are rushing into the NFT market, and recently, small and medium-sized NFT trading platforms are also rapidly increasing. NFTs are generally created on public blockchains and traded in connection with virtual assets. However, In China, issuing and trading of virtual assets is prohibited, so NFT issuance and transactions through virtual assets are impossible. Since NFTs are based on blockchain technology like virtual assets, this article briefly reviewed the blockchainrelated policies and laws to understand the structure of NFT transactions in China. China's NFT trading platforms are strengthening their own censorship in consideration of the government's policy to ban virtual assets, and emphasizing compliance with related policies and laws through industry self-regulation. Recently, financial associations jointly announced the ‘Proposal on the Prevention of NFT-Related Financial Risks’. This proposal aims to prevent the risk of financialization of NFTs because NFTs also have risks such as money laundering and financial commodification like virtual assets. Although this proposal has no legal effect, it can be seen that the Chinese government's position on the NFT was indirectly expressed through associations. Therefore, an official position similar to this proposal may may be issued by the Chinese government in the near future. Recently, a Chinese court ruled on the responsibility of the trading platform for posting NFT works that infringe copyright. The court ruled that NFT trading platforms not only have to fulfill the responsibilities of general network service providers, but also have an obligation to pre-examine the copyrights of NFT works traded on the platform by establishing an intellectual property review system. Since this judgment has implications for us, this article analyzed the issues of the judgment.