Romanian Government NFT Trading Platform Lands on MultiversX

Romania’s National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics, or ICI, plans to launch “ICI Decentralized Services,” an NFT trading platform on MultiversX.

The platform will officially launch on April 26 and a handful of NFT collections — of Romanian sports teams, athletes and libraries —  will be ready for purchase at launch. 

In fact, the ICI itself will be launching an NFT collection titled “Past Present Future,” which it says will showcase scientific breakthroughs and technological advancements over the past half-century. 

The Romanian NFT trading platform will mark one of the very first government initiatives in the country to join the digital asset ecosystem. 

“The NFT technology gained significant popularity in recent years due to its capability to create unique and scarce digital assets that can be applied in numerous use cases, making them valuable and useful for being approached by institutions,” an ICI spokesperson told Blockworks. “For Romania, the development of projects based on NFT technology can benefit the country’s economy by attracting new investments and fostering innovation in the blockchain and decentralized technology industry.”

Beniamin Mincu, co-founder and CEO of MultiversX, told Blockworks that digital property remains a very clear value proposition that exists for blockchains. 

“The ability of any kind of value (i.e certificates of authenticity, real estate records, property titles) to become digital, liquid, instantly, and globally tradeable will give the world economy superpowers, drastically reduce bureaucracy and guarantee ownership over assets for anyone, anywhere,” Mincu said.

It is exciting to see European governments looking into innovation for economic growth projects, he added.

To ensure that NFT trading is seamlessly integrated into Romania and safe for its consumers, the ICI will ensure that its regulations will align with EU standards.

“Legal considerations related to NFT trading in Romania cover a variety of aspects, including taxation, anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, consumer protection and the evolving European Union (EU) regulatory landscape,” an ICI spokesperson said. 

“The initiative to integrate NFT trading into the existing landscape will require the harmonization of local laws with EU regulations and the resolution of any legal ambiguities,” they added. “This involves continuously amending existing legislation, clarifying legal ambiguities and working with EU institutions to ensure a consistent approach to NFT regulation.”

The institutional NFT trading platform is not the only product the ICI plans to launch. 

In a press release reviewed by Blockworks, the ICI notes that it hopes to equip society with tools that enable trading and managing digital assets in the near future. With plans to look into tokenizing institutional ecosystems such as education, intellectual property and real estate, just to name a few.

“For the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics – ICI Bucharest, this is a noteworthy step towards Innovation by developing and building a framework for a sustainable and secure economy, benefiting the interaction between citizens, businesses and institutional entities in decentralized digital ecosystems,” the ICI said in a statement.

The ICI did not immediately respond to Blockworks’ request for comment.

Updated April 20, 2023 at 11:53 am ET: Added comment from an ICI spokesperson.

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