Popular Chinese messaging app WeChat suspends several accounts linked to non-fungible tokens

Popular Chinese messaging app WeChat has suspended several accounts linked to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as per state media CCTV.

The step has been taken for the prevention of speculation in the digital assets amid rising crackdown on domestic technology companies by China's ruling Communist Party.

WeChat said in a statement that it had "recently standardised and rectified public accounts and small programmes for speculation and secondary sales of digital collections".

The platform added that it has ''rectified'' accounts that had been promoting NFTS that many financial experts believe are unsafe investments as they can be duplicated easily.

WeChat, developed by gaming giant Tencent, saw slowing growth during a "challenging" 2021, according to its annual report.

The Shenzhen-based firm saw its total revenues in 2021 increase by 16 percent to 560.1 billion yuan ($88 billion), a record low for the company operating Tencent QQ and WeChat, two of China's most ubiquitous messaging platforms.

"2021 was a challenging year, in which we embraced changes and implemented certain measures that reinforced (Tencent's) long-term sustainability, but had the effect of slowing our revenue growth," said CEO Pony Ma, also known as Ma Huateng.

He added that Tencent was adapting to a "healthier" internet environment in China.

Tencent's sluggish growth comes after a year of increasing regulatory control by Beijing. In November last year, the Chinese government said all new apps and updates of its platforms must be approved by regulators, after finding that nine of the group's apps have committed "violations".

Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reported that China is considering requiring Tencent Holdings Ltd to include WeChat Pay in a newly created financial holding company as part of an overhaul that may require a new license for the mobile payments service.

The news comes after the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Tencent was facing a potential fine of at least hundreds of millions of yuan for violating some central bank regulations on its WeChat Pay mobile network.

(With inputs from agencies)