UK Royal Mint to issue its first NFT this summer

Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the United Kingdom’s Royal Mint has asked Her Majesty’s Treasure to create the nation’s first official NFT for issuance sometime this summer. 

The move was announced via the HM Treasury Twitter account and was confirmed by John Glen, the economic secretary for the Treasury. 

Speaking at the Innovate Finance conference in London, Glen further explained the move, saying: “There is a genuine opportunity to build on our strengths in FinTech and seize the capitalist energy which has already made UK financial services what it is, and use it to unleash the potential of crypto technologies.”

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The Treasury itself noted that the NFT issuance shows “…the forward-looking approach we are determined to take towards cryptoassets in the UK.” 

NFTs remain a somewhat controversial topic. While some believe they are the future of digital object ownership, others see them as a hotbed of scammers attempting to make hay before the latest digital bubble bursts. 

For its part, the Royal Mint seems to be treating them as something like a digital extension of its regular practice of releasing commemorative coin sets, and as part of a larger UK government push into crypto-based assets and technologies. 

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Like several other nations around the world, the UK seemingly intends to make its shores a hospitable place for crypto companies. Speaking at the same event, Glen added that crypto technologies could help the UK “attract investment, generate waves of new jobs and create a wave of groundbreaking new products and services.”

While it has yet to dive into NFTs like the UK Royal Mint, the US federal government also recently took its first steps into officially addressing the country’s future in the crypto space, including the possible exploration of a digital US Dollar.