Akash Nigam, founder and chief executive of Venice-based Genies Inc., said he wasn’t entirely sure what a nonfungible token was until last summer when he met with Dapper Labs Inc. Chief Executive Roham Gharegozlou.

“He was like, ‘Dude, everything you’re (talking about) is technically an NFT,’” Nigam said. “I was like, ‘Oh, what’s that?’”

It’s a question many attuned to technological trends have asked in the last few months as NFTs have become one of the hottest topics in the digital landscape — and, increasingly, a focus for many Los Angeles businesses.

The term NFT can apply to nearly any unit of digital data, from a cat meme to a video file.

Similar to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether, NFTs are traded on digital ledgers called blockchains. Unlike cryptocurrencies, however, NFTs are nonfungible, meaning they are more or less unique and cannot be easily exchanged, or spent.

Genies, for instance, manufactures apparel that exists entirely in the digital realm and can be worn by virtual avatars created by the company’s customers (including pop stars Cardi B and Justin Bieber).

Wearable items are released in limited edition sets and can hold very different values, depending on how desirable they are to individual users.

“We’re just trying to own our lane,” said Nigam. “And our lane is avatar wearables for the metaverse.”

The company is growing quickly. Genies announced May 3 that it had raised $65 million in a Series B funding round led by Bond Capital, giving it the financing to expand its lineup of digital offerings — from designer sunglasses to popular soccer jerseys.

Last month, Warner Music Group Corp. announced Genies would create avatars for its major artists and that the two companies would partner to develop limited edition NFT wearables tied to musicians and aimed at diehard fans.

Genies demonstrated this concept in February with the release of digital collectibles affiliated with musician Shawn Mendes, effectively bringing the concert merchandise booth to the virtual realm.

In November, Genies partnered with Dapper Labs to make many of its digital products available through Dapper’s new blockchain called Flow.

Nigam said Genies, which launched in 2017, always planned to sell its digital merchandise on a blockchain in order to give products greater legitimacy as collector’s items.

“We could just sell limited edition digital wearables,” Nigam said. “We could just say ‘There’s only 1,000 available, believe it or not.’ And that’s where the big question mark comes in because people want to know that this is governed and that they can authenticate and prove that there are only 1,000.”

Items traded on a blockchain carry records of all past transactions, which are nearly impossible to alter. The technology was designed to ensure secure cryptocurrency exchanges, but it’s recently fostered excitement around NFTs as a means of creating the same sense of rarity in the digital world that exists in the markets for high-end art and collectibles.