Rishi Sunak's NFT push 'a bit more virtue signalling' from Chancellor

4 April 2022, 20:02

City A.M editor accuses Sunak of virtue signalling with Royal Mint NFT

The editor of City A.M. tells LBC that the Treasury's plans to have the Royal Mint create an NFT is 'virtue signalling'.

Andy Sylvester shared the news with Iain Dale that Rishi Sunak is "commissioning the Royal Mint to make a Royal Mint NFT."

Mr Sylvester explained that an NFT, or Non-Fungible Token, is a digital product which a person can have complete ownership of in the online space.

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The Chancellor said on Twitter that he wants to make the UK a "global cryptoassets hub" and will "encourage crypto investment and technology" in the UK to achieve this goal.

The City A.M. editor told LBC that Mr Sunak's move "seems to me to be a bit more virtue signalling," quipping that the Chancellor might be looking to cash in on some of the photos of himself from when he was more popular.

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He went on to tell Iain that the governor of the Bank of England has told us to "hold our horses on the crypto and blockchain path."

Mr Sylvester said that the governor said cryptocurrencies and NFTs are "a bit of a frontier for fraud," but Mr Sunak has made statements on both today.

"Clearly something is not quite clear in the messaging," Mr Sylvester concluded.