Digital mooncakes smack of risks

Mooncakes are all over the place in the run-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival. They are nice things to gift to friends. However, some mooncakes are priced unusually high at 50,000 yuan ($7,188) a piece. Online shopping portals claim they are "zero-sugar, zero-calorie and zero-fat", which is true. For these are not real objects, but just a string of data. Welcome to the age of "digital mooncakes".

Mooncakes going digital is a good thing, as it means the younger generation can now have a better understanding of a traditional festival. And the Non-Fungible Token technology gives each digital mooncake its unique identity.

However, the extremely high price makes the digital mooncake something for speculation. Those buying it might not include it in their set of collections, but instead keep them aside while waiting for the right moment to sell it. If the trend catches on, it would make the digital mooncakes a Ponzi scheme.

Worse, such digital mooncakes could become a new tool for bribery, with someone buying a piece of digital mooncake and gifting it to someone, only to buy it back at a much higher price.

On April 13, the National Internet Finance Association of China together with two other similar financial associations issued a document lauding the NFT's role in pushing for the digitalization of industries, as well as strictly preventing the risks of illegal financial activities. In June, Fujian province issued a document banning exchanges from doing NFT trade.

On Sept 5, the State Administration for Market Regulation publicized five typical cases, four of which are against the mandatory national standards on preventing over-packaging of commodities, while one broke the rule of mixing mooncakes with other commodities.

The administration has been regulating the market by curbing the deeds of speculating prices of mooncakes for profit. It is time to regulate the digital mooncake market, too, so that they do not become a new tool for bribery or a Ponzi scheme.