How non-fungible tokens became the latest tech speculation bubble

From animated cats and sex tapes to major albums, artists are using NFTs to sell their work. But why?

If you go by the headlines, there's a trading boom in something called non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Grimes has sold $6m of art via NFTs; Kings of Leon will be releasing their new album as two types of NFT, and a 10-second digital artwork bought via an NFT for $67,000 in October last year has just sold for $6.6m. Twitter boss Jack Dorsey's first tweet is up for auction as an NFT and may fetch as much as $2.5m.

To their advocates, NFTs track the ownership and guarantee the authenticity of art - and allow creators to monetise digital artefacts. To sceptics, they're a bubble within a bubble, a speculative frenzy that shows how far from sanity investors have gone.