  Purpose: This paper aims to establish a fundamental and comprehensive
understanding of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) by identifying and structuring
common characteristics within a taxonomy. NFTs are hyped and increasingly
marketed as essential building blocks of the Metaverse. However, the dynamic
evolution of the NFT space has posed challenges for those seeking to develop a
deep and comprehensive understanding of NFTs, their features, and capabilities.
  Design/methodology/approach: Utilizing common guidelines for the creation of
taxonomies, we developed (over three iterations), a multi-layer taxonomy based
on workshops and interviews with 11 academic and 15 industry experts. Through
an evaluation of 25 NFTs, we demonstrate the usefulness of our taxonomy.
  Findings: The taxonomy has four layers, 14 dimensions and 42 characteristics,
which describe NFTs in terms of reference object, token properties, token
distribution, and realizable value.
  Originality: Our framework is the first to systematically cover the emerging
NFT phenomenon. It is concise yet extendible and presents many avenues for
future research in a plethora of disciplines. The characteristics identified in
our taxonomy are useful for NFT and Metaverse related research in Finance,
Marketing, Law, and Information Systems. Additionally, the taxonomy can serve
as an information source for policymakers as they consider NFT regulation.
