
In early 2021, Dylan Field, chief executive of San Francisco-based design software group Figma, sold a digital collectible — a non-fungible token (NFT) — for more than $7.5mn. He had bought the CryptoPunk, a pixellated blue alien avatar smoking a pipe, several years before the market mania — for around $15,000.
He has since built up a porfolio of about 600 NFTs from various collections and artists, many of which are about more than investment: some NFTs can operate like “participatory art experiments”, he says, where buyers can get involved in creating new art together. “The work is not static. It’s a story being told. And that to me is the most interesting use of the technology.”