Cuban artists blocked from once-promising NFT trading sites

By MEGAN JANETSKY
Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) — Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, have offered Cuban artists a lifeline during the pandemic, which wreaked havoc on the island country’s tourism industry and, subsequently, its art sales. The digital images registered on a blockchain and generally purchased with cryptocurrencies have offered them a way to profit from their art on an international stage with few speech restrictions due to the medium’s decentralized nature. But some of the key platforms where NFTs are traded have delisted the accounts of certain artists from Cuba and other places that face U.S. sanctions, often with little or no explanation as to why.