The first crypto tokens that I can recall, going back to my days as a futurist in the early 2010s, is Bitcoin. What made Bitcoin special is that it was designed to be fungible. That is, each BTC is designed for the tokens to be interchangeable with ease to hold the same unit of value, if you will.
Now you dont have to be a futurist from way back to fully appreciate what makes these tokens special. On its own, Bitcoin created a revolution. Couple that with the world-domination of the Internet, and you have a bonafide dual revolution. Which brings me to the non-fungible token, a special type of cryptographic token that represents something unique (i.e. NFTs are not interchangeable).
https://medium.com/cybermiles/exploring-the-cybermiles-ecosystem-collectibles-and-the-token-craze-7732d5274db5