JD Relaunches Digital Collectibles Business, "SpiritRare" Platform Launches New Digital Asset Transfer Service

On December 17, according to *New Consumption Daily*, Lingxi—JD.com’s digital asset platform—announced on December 16 that it has launched a gifting feature. Newly issued digital assets on Lingxi became eligible for gifting starting December 15, while the opening timeline for existing assets is yet to be determined. This move comes just one day after Lingxi kicked off its public beta. Back in December 2021, Lingxi launched on the JD.com app mini-program, with its first batch of digital artworks (featuring JD’s mascot “Joy”) going on sale. However, amid tightening regulations—and without enabling secondary trading—the platform once experienced a temporary halt. 2021 marked the first year of digital collectibles in China, with Tencent’s “Huanhe” app and Ant Group’s “Whale Exploration” platform leading the first half of the industry. The sector cooled down in the second half of 2022: the China Internet Finance Association and two other industry groups issued a *Proposal on Preventing NFT-Related Financial Risks*, explicitly curbing NFT financialization/securitization and blocking illegal financial activities. That July, Tencent News suspended its digital collectibles business; in August, Huanhe released a user purge notice; and in November, Tencent Music shut down its digital collectibles division. A turning point arrived this December, when two national standards took effect: *Implementation Guide for Cultural Asset Management Digital Asset Trading* and *Value Evaluation Guide for Cultural Digital Assets*. These standards shifted the industry from “voluntary exploration” to “regulated guidance.” The trading guide specifies participant qualifications, risk control, and other process norms, while the valuation guide establishes a unified framework for cultural digital assets. Zhu Youping, rotating chairman of the Blockchain Special Committee of the China Communications Industry Association, noted: “JD Lingxi’s restart confirms a core logic: the essence of digital collectibles is a digital equity certificate—a commodity, not a financial asset.”