Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com drops NFT series on its own blockchain

Chinese online retail giant JD.com is diving into the nonfungible token, or NFT, industry by introducing a special NFT series for its annual JD Discovery conference.

Using its proprietary blockchain platform, JD.com will be distributing commemorative NFT certificates to attendees of the JDD 2021 event in Beijing, the Chinese news agency Sina Finance reported on Wednesday.

Specifically, JD.com will issue one NFT for free to anyone who signs up for the JDD 2021 conference between Monday and Nov. 22 through the WeChat mini program on the event’s official website.

According to the report, the NFT series features a set of seven NFT models, each containing an image used to represent a different forum in the JDD event.

Users who sign up to participate will be also able to get more NFTs by inviting friends to sign up. “Each time one person is successfully invited to sign up, one NFT voucher will be added until all seven NFT models are collected,” the report reads.

The JDD 2021 conference will kick off at the ​China International Exhibition Center on Nov. 22 and will feature panels on artificial intelligence and tech innovation. Launched in 2017, the JDD conference has emerged as a major technology event in China, covering topics like smart cities, the digital financial industry, supply chain innovation and others.

Related: Chinese Communist Party warns of NFT hype bubble

The news comes after some major Chinese companies like retail giant Alibaba and technology conglomerate Tencent announced their own NFT projects as well. Alibaba announced the launch of an NFT marketplace in mid-August, aiming to allow trademark holders to sell tokenized licenses to their intellectual property. Tencent said previously it was planning to release its NFT trading platform.