Visual China Group (VCG), China’s largest stock image provider, has started a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace that lets users outside of mainland China pay with Ether.

See related article: China’s diktat against NFT flipping spawns an ingenious industry

Fast facts

  • The platform, dubbed “Vault by 500px,” went live with a beta version on Wednesday, and is expected to provide “a new stream of income for creators,” online photo-sharing platform 500px said.
  • Acquired by VCG in 2018, 500px has put a number of NFTs up for sale on the new platform, with the most expensive piece priced at 0.71 ETH (US$1,266) at the time of publishing.
  • “When we give creators the opportunity to mint their work and have it exist as an NFT we are helping them be part of a growing and lucrative community,” 500 px said in a statement on Wednesday.
  • Global stock image supplier Getty Images last week announced it will launch an NFT marketplace and debut digital collectibles on the Ethereum Virtual Machine-based Palm sidechain.
  • China banned cryptocurrency transactions in September, but has yet to set clear regulations for NFT trading in the country.
  • But state-backed entities in China have criticized the flipping of NFTs.
  • Despite Beijing’s rhetoric against speculation in NFTs, some in mainland China are trading on WeChat groups, spawning an industry that caters to the fervor over the asset class.

See related article: Getty Images to launch NFT marketplace with Candy Digital