A leading blockchain expert on Monday expressed her optimism about the future of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) trades in China, with the country's formal regulations around cryptocurrencies and large investment potential pointing to a strong growth for the nascent digital assets.

NFTs are digital certificates proving that their holders own an original digital asset, such as a viral video, meme, or picture. Traders often hope these digital assets could be the next frontier for art and memorabilia collectors.

China has been setting its first national-level compliance digital asset secondary trading platform to boost the national cultural digitalization strategy and the development of cultural undertakings and cultural industries.

Merav Ozair, a fintech professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, told the China Global Television Network (CGTN) in an online interview that while the world's NFT trading platforms are exercising little regulations within these crypto spaces, China's national-level compliance platform may set a strong example for the global market to follow.

"The rest of the world hasn't regulated any of the crypto space yet, and not to mention the NFT platforms. The NFT platforms, of course, [around] the world are not regulated. OpenSea, which I mentioned is the largest one, where most of the action is happening, is not regulated at all. They are trying to put their own restrictions and trying to minimize all kinds of exclusive activities. But it's not regulated. I think the only one that is going to be regulated is the one in China, if you ask me. And maybe that will be a model that other countries [adopt], because they are thinking about how to regulate the NFTs, [amid these geopolitical concerns], they are thinking about that and maybe if they see this model, how it works in China, maybe that would be something they will look at and decide to follow, or maybe make some differences and adjustments, but I think that would be a good step," said Ozair.

"I think these regulations are [going] in the right directions and I think this is how the world will eventually go in that direction, so I think this is all good. And this is what these platforms all about. It's about trading, selling, buying, explaining and storing and all that, then these platforms should be regulated," she added.

The expert also noted her optimism originates from China's mass investments, and the NFTs' key role in the metaverse, a shared space based on virtual reality technologies. She also says many may be unaware of the wider potential uses of NFTs beyond being merely collectible items.

"They are definitely here to stay and the reason why is because beyond the hive - we had all these hives about these arts, these collectibles, because I don't think that collectibles is the only use case for entities. There is all the business and economic use cases especially in the metaverse. I know that China is investing extensively in the metaverse, and NFTs will be part of it. Every asset in the metaverse is going to an NFT. So NFTs with all these business use cases are really going to grow," she said.