NFT stands for "non-fungible token". Doesn't that sound a lot clearer? Let's start at the beginning! "Fungible" is an economics term that refers to a commodity or asset that can be exchanged for another commodity or asset of equal value. For example, a banknote of a certain denomination in dollars is fungible because it can easily be exchanged for another banknote of exactly the same denomination.

When something is "non-fungible," it means it cannot be exchanged for something of equal value. A piece of land would not be fungible as each piece of land is unique and it would be difficult if not impossible to find another piece of land of exactly the same value. Art is another example of a non-exchangeable asset as its value is very subjective - and this is where NFTs come in.

An NFT denotes sole ownership of a specific digital asset, such as an artwork, in-game purchase, or tweet. You can buy an NFT at a certain price, but since it's not fungible, its market value can fluctuate.

While NFTs are often bought and sold using Crytocurrency such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, they are not cryptocurrencies themselves. Like the US dollar and other currencies, cryptocurrencies are fungible. If you exchange one bitcoin for another bitcoin, both have the same value. In the end you still have one bitcoin. Because NFTs are unique, they have no value other than what the market is willing to pay for them.

Since an NFT can only have one owner at a time, by purchasing an NFT you become the sole owner of a particular digital asset. That doesn't mean you're the only one who decides who can see or share your NFT.

Take the most expensive NFT ever sold, for example: it's from Beeple, called Everydays: the First 5000 Days , and it's a digital collage of 5,000 pieces. The owner of this NFT is Vignesh Sundaresan, founder of the Metapurse NFT project and Bitaccess, the Bitcoin ATM provider.

Sundaresan may be the official owner of the NFT. But the collage has been copied, shared and seen by millions of people around the world - and that's okay! So when you buy an NFT, it's a bit like buying a signed print. The NFT is signed exclusively for you, but anyone can view the work.

In principle, any digital asset is suitable for being an NFT. So far, the following things count as NFTs:

• works of art
• tweets
• gifs
• songs
• In-Game Purchases
• essays
• domain names

Trying to understand the weird and magical world of non-fungible tokens? Then you're probably also asking yourself why anyone should buy an NFT. In fact, there are a few reasons why people with the wherewithal can make such an investment. Let's look at them one by one!

The rarer an item is, the higher the interest in it seems to be. Because NFTs can only have one owner, they convey a sense of rarity or scarcity. This encourages potential buyers to purchase a specific NFT before someone else snatches the object of their desire from under their noses.

Imagine discovering the ultimate sneakers. According to the website, only one pair remains. A real rarity, right? If you're like most of us, you'll be quick to grab it even if it means cutting out on shopping.

Whether you've traded trading cards in the schoolyard or collect fridge magnets from your travel destinations, NFTs are essentially trading cards, too, only for the super-rich. True, these cards have no value other than what the market ascribes to them. However, since this fluctuates, their collector's value also increases. The potential in them therefore makes trading NFTs a high-risk gamble. So it makes sense to make comparisons between the NFT market and the art market.

However, unlike the art market, NFTs offer artists more autonomy as they are no longer dependent on galleries or auction houses to sell their works. Since there is no intermediary or broker, the artists can sell their works directly to the buyers and keep a larger part of the profits.

Want to learn more about NFTs? The total value of NFT sales in the first quarter of 2021 was $2 billion. And here are a few more interesting facts!

The most expensive NFT ever sold was artist Beeple's Everydays: the First 5000 Days . It was sold to Vignesh Sundaresan at auction at Christie's for $69.3 million. This was ten times more than was paid for any other NFT at the time. And the steep price makes it one of the hundred most expensive works of art of all time.

That's not an easy question to answer. There's a lot of crazy stuff out there on the NFT market, like a set of Shatner trading cards featuring William Shatner featuring an x-ray of his teeth, or Grimes' WarNymph Baby digital artwork. In order to pick a winner here, a certain arbitrariness is unavoidable. However, we have put together a few promising candidates. 

Here is a selection of the most interesting NFTs out there:

• Lindsay Lohan's electronic single Lullabye , which accompanies a GIF of her torso adorned with butterflies flapping their wings in time
• A digital image of Shawn Mendes' gold embellished vest that he wore while on tour
• A video clip showing one of Banksy's artwork being burned. The original image sold for $95,000 and the NFT for a whopping $380,000.
• The viral YouTube video "Charlie bit my finger" was removed from YouTube and then sold as an NFT for $693,000
• Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, sold his first tweet ("just setting up my twttr") for almost $3 million