The black swan has come for Minecraft-based NFTs. Mojang, the company behind Minecraft, stated in a press release today that NFT integration with the game “…are generally not something we will support or allow”. What exactly this means is not totally clear yet, but the release specifically mentions that worlds, skins, items, or other assets may not be used to create scarce digital assets. TLDR: Minecraft bans NFTs.
Turning Minecraft worlds into scarce digital assets is, of course, exactly what the major project NFT Worlds was based on. The project has cataclysmically crashed as holders rush for the exit, from a floor around 3 ETH to < 1 ETH.
NFT Worlds is not the only Minecraft-based project, but it is the biggest and most successful. There is still likely much more pain for anyone involved in the space.
This decision by Mojang is likely spurred on by the high-profile rug of Blockverse for $1.2 million USD. Especially with a younger audience to protect, the team is highly sensitive to signs of predatory behavior in their ecosystem. It may also just be toeing the party line – while NFTs are ubiquitous within the crypto space and Crypto Twitter, they still have a lot of bad press in the wider world.
In any case, we’ll see what happens. These projects may bounce back following more clear guidelines from Mojang, or they may be gone for good. Stay tuned.
