The UK’s political landscape in April 2022 was a starkly different place for Rishi Sunak.
He was a chancellor who had enjoyed unusual popularity thanks to his support for workers during the pandemic only to be plunged into an unenviable position.
The country was facing the devastating economic fallout of Covid-19, Vladimir Putin had invaded Ukraine and the biggest squeeze on living standards since records began loomed large.
Tables were turning on the chancellor who was criticised for not doing enough to support the poorest in his Spring statement.
So it was little wonder that when he went all “crypto bro” on us in April, the government was accused of being “out of touch”.
While millions were struggling financially, Sunak announced measures for the notoriously unregulated cryptocurrency sector, which features incredibly volatile currencies.
“It’s my ambition to make the UK a global hub for cryptoasset technology,” he said.
The statement piece of the announcement was that Sunak had instructed the 1,136-year-old Royal Mint to issue a trendy non-fungible token by the summer.
NFTs can be anything digital such as a drawing or music but each one is a unique “one of a kind” asset – rather like a famous painting.
They are stored on a blockchain – the same decentralised ledger of transactions used to buy and sell cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
The crypto-phenomenon has proved fashionable with celebrities, most recently supermodel Bella Hadid joined the metaverse with an NFT collection called CY-B3LLA – featuring artworks based on 3D scans of her body.
Artist Damien Hirst is also dabbling in NFTs, announcing he will burn thousands of his paintings as part of his year-long NFT project, titled The Currency.
Buyers who purchased one of the 10,000 NFTs for £1,600 each have been asked to choose whether to keep it or trade it for the physical work. If the former, the painting will…
