Dunamu, the operator of Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit on Wednesday kicked off its signature annual Upbit Developer Conference with global industry experts.

The company said that its two-day conference features pressing issues in the industry such as nonfungible tokens, decentralized finance, smart contracts, central bank digital currencies, with 18 global blockchain industry leaders including Lee Jung-bong , CEO of Seoul Auction Blue, and Cuy Sheffield, vice president and head of Crypto at Visa.

Appearing in the morning session on the first day, Lee said he sees huge potential in art and nonfungible tokens. “When the story and image generated by artists are made into NFTs, another narrative is formed throughout the sales process, and a new value is created via collaboration or by adding other services after the sale,” Lee said, adding that the NFT market is expected to grow to be worth more than 1,000 trillion won ($865 billion) by 2030.

Jeffrey Zirlin, co-founder of Sky Mavis, creator of Ethereum-based NFT game Axie Infinity, explored the potential of NFTs as a means of value creation in the gaming industry.

”We believe games are becoming economies and because they have even laws and financial systems, these games are becoming digital nations,“ Zirlin added. 

The UDC, first held in 2018, has garnered participants from more than 600 companies, 7,000 attendees and 95 discussion and sessions on YouTube for the past three years, said Song Chi-hyung, chairman of Dunamu.