by AZALEA AZUAR / pic source: Asia Digital Bank

ASIA Digital Bank Ltd, also known as Labuan Investment Bank, has recently partnered Malaysia Comicker Union to create the world’s first set of 60-year-cycle (Jia Zi) Fortune Chinese Zodiac non-fungible tokens (NFT).

A total of 11 cartoonists from the union have designed the artworks based on the 12 Chinese zodiacs beginning from 2022 until 2081 according to the five elements which are gold, wood, water, fire and earth.

The initiative is meant to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year as well as accelerating Malaysia’s NFT developments.

Asia Digital Bank’s zodiacs include the 2022 Water Tiger, 2034 Wood Tiger, 2046 Fire Tiger, 2058 Earth Tiger and 2070 Gold Tiger whereas each of the cartoonists (who prefer to be known by pseudonyms) would design each NFT — Black Jelly Fish (Tiger), Dreamers (Rooster), Gloom Drone (Monkey), Joon Ong (Goat), LOK (Snake), Max Iadoptedacat (Ox), Pee Yong (Dog), Redcode (Dragon), Takasi (Rat), WMM (Rabbit) and JiaYi (Pig and Horse).

Asia Digital Bank chairman Liu Xuming (picture) believed that the products of this collaboration are unique and highly valuable.

“Asia Digital Bank understands that Malaysian artists are very keen on entering the NFT market. Hence, we hope that the collaboration with the Malaysia Comicker Union can boost the development of NFT in the country as well as help Malaysian artists go global quicker and easier in the digital realm,” he said in a statement yesterday.

He added that the remaining 11 Chinese Zodiac NFTs will be revealed in the next few months and they would be rewarded to Gold Members through a monthly lucky draw.

This is followed by Asia Digital Bank’s launching of the A-Bank super wallet for listing, trading and circulation.

Malaysia Comicker Union president Lau Shaw Ming said he is delighted to collaborate with them on developing the NFTs.

“Being a part of the Malaysia Comicker Union, I am very excited to be able to contribute to this 60-year Cycle Fortune Chinese Zodiac NFT project.

“This project has brought together several designers from the comic and design industry to create 12 unique creations based on the Chinese zodiac theme,” he said.

Lau is satisfied with the outcome despite taking a lot of time and effort on the concept design and character modelling and he was very grateful to Asia Digital Bank for this partnership.

“I hope that it can bring a meaningful impact to the NFT creation community in Malaysia and bring more comprehensive developments to the creators,” he expressed his gratitude.

The Malaysia Comicker Union is the only comics practitioner group that assembles 90 Chinese cartoonists and it was formed in 2016.

Later, it established its platform to promote Malaysia’s original comics as well as the comic industry locally and abroad.