NFT Technology in South Korea: History and Trends

Abstract

In 2017, the technology of unique cryptographic tokens NFT (Non-Fungible Token) was created to help artists to monetize their creativity in the digital environment. But today the NFT world is a huge market segment in the internet space: millions of users all over the world, including famous artists, exhibit NFT works and buy and sell them. The nominal size of the market, according to various estimates, was $22 billion in 2020 and $50 billion in 2021; and the volume of sales only continues to grow: already in January of this year 2022, at least half a billion transactions were made weekly. In this article, the author presents a study of the Korean segment of the NFT market based on the NFT token sale and resale platforms OpenSea and Rarible, highlights the main directions of works and the main names of NFT artists, and examines the Korean segment of the cryptocurrency market used for selling cryptocurrency tokens. The author also analyzes how NFT technology first appeared in South Korea and was spread to individuals and organizations, and presents data on the largest transactions, comparing NFT tokens of artists from South Korea with tokens of other foreign artists. Over the past few years, NFT technology has not only become popular among individuals but has also gained credibility and spread to large companies in South Korea. The author notes that NFT technology has been actively developed not only by private users but also by the government — and has even come under its regulation due to the rapid growth of interest in blockchain.