The nonfungible token (NFT) industry in South Korea has grown quickly, mostly due to the popularity of Kakao’s cryptocurrency and nonfungible token services, but competitors have also joined the fray.

According to some estimates, the South Korean NFT market might expand even more after the announcement by the government that NFT purchases will not be taxed on November 5.

Klaytn, the blockchain developed by Kakao and GroundX, is the most natural choice for Koreans wishing to acquire and sell NFTs on a network.

Over 52 million active users of KakaoTalk, Kakao’s core product suite, make use of the Klip crypto wallet supplied by Klaytn, which is incorporated within the mobile app. Klaytn is a cryptocurrency exchange based in Singapore.

OpenSea presently has more than 37,000 NFTs available for purchase via Kakao’s own Krafterspace NFT minting business, which is operated by the company.

According to Sangdi, CEO of Spoon, an NFT maker platform situated in South Korea, “We are focusing initially on the domestic Korean market, and later on the international market.” “I think Klaytn will be able to aid us in concentrating on Korea at this point.”

When it comes to NFT collectors in South Korea, Polygon, an Ethereum layer-two scaling network, is posing a serious threat to Klaytn’s dominance as they get more acquainted with global NFT trends.

Polygon will be familiar to Korean NFT collectors since it is one of three networks served by OpenSea, which is based in South Korea. It also boasts a thriving non-financial technology (NFT) industry, which some Korean enterprises have chosen as part of their worldwide business plan.

He also believes that Polygon is a better fit for NFT than Klaytn. In spite of his extensive collection of favorite collections outside of his home country of South Korea, he believes that layer-two solutions built on Ethereum are more effective for promoting NFTs throughout the globe.

As Sangdi put it, “Because Polygon is based on Ethereum, it is the best alternative for increasing NFT scalability while simultaneously decreasing centralization.”

Kakao has a long-standing partnership with Dunamu, the owner of the Korean Upbit exchange, and is also active in blockchain-related venture capital via its partnership with the company (VC). Kakao Games, a virtual goods bazaar and metaverse, is also in the works, according to the company.

Because Kakao’s present overseas expansion efforts are progressing at such a glacial pace, the company’s ability to maintain its footing may be constrained. As a consequence of these concerns, Sangdi said that the company’s long-term objective is to become a globally recognized name.

South Korean Firms and NFTs

According to speakers at a three-day symposium on non-fungible tokens, the majority of South Korean financial institutions are concentrating on how to incorporate non-fungible tokens into their business models rather than discussing whether or not NFTs are the next big thing in financial technology.

Tokens are used to represent virtual assets, the majority of which are works of visual art and music. Blockchain technology may be used to monitor and safeguard the ownership of each NFT since each one is one-of-a-kind. The NFT market has grown by more than 50% in both the second and third quarters of this year alone, and it is now “too large to ignore,” as the saying goes.

At the NFT Busan 2021 conference, which was held on November 4 and hosted by the Busan Metropolitan City, officials from Shinhan Bank, Hanwha Asset Management, and Ground X, a blockchain division of Kakao Corporation, all stated the same point of view.

According to Lee Young-Jae, a senior manager at Mirae Asset Securities, “conventional firms are extremely effective at business growth but weak on the blockchain technology front,” which is a possible future trend in blockchain cooperation, according to traditional firms being “extremely effective at business growth but weak on the blockchain technology front.”

Moreover, if the digital asset market continues to grow and evolve, the synergy between these two radically disparate businesses might result in a game-changing application, he said.

More institutional investors are expected to join the digital asset markets, according to Lee, which will result in the creation of further blockchain services to accommodate the increasing demand from these new institutional investors.

Instead of only buying bitcoin for their own portfolios, institutional investors are now purchasing cryptocurrencies and other digital assets for the portfolios of their clients.

Following Lee’s predictions about the future of bitcoin, the author predicts that other countries will follow El Salvador’s example and accept cryptocurrency as legal tender in the near future.

The founder of Ground X, Kim Won-sang, said that “digital banks, no matter how much work they put in, are still just banks” during a debate on the future of cryptocurrencies.

When it comes to the financial industry, banks must figure out how to not only grab a piece of the pie, but also how to extend their presence in it.

Despite its present prominence, the crypto-currency market remains inside the realm of conventional finance, despite the fact that it is regarded as a fungible asset class.

National financial tokens, on the other hand, have the potential to go well beyond the confines of conventional financial assets, according to Kim.