‘I went from having to borrow money to making $4m in a day’: how NFTs are shaking up the art world

Digital art is a billion-dollar business, with everyone from Paris Hilton to Damien Hirst trading in non-fungible tokens'. But are NFTs just a get-rich-quick scheme masquerading as culture?

It's actually a lot simpler than you think." It's a Tuesday afternoon, and somewhat to my surprise, I'm on the phone to Paris Hilton, who is graciously explaining the world of NFTs.

Hilton is many things - a reality star, an heiress, an unlikely lockdown fitness guru who uses designer handbags instead of weights. But until now, she has never been considered a significant player in the art world. When artists have acknowledged her, often they've done so to fetishise her image. In 2008, Damien Hirst bought a portrait of her by the artist Jonathan Yeo, in which her body is constructed from collaged images cut from porn magazines.