China is actively promoting innovation within the Metaverse industry. As the blockchain technology in Metaverse advance, non-fungible tokens (NFT) provide a new lens and huge opportunities for brands to improve brand equity. However, the academic inquiry about the differential characteristics of NFT from the consumer perspective, and how these characteristics affect consumer response remain inadequate. Based on the grounded theory, this paper employs individual in-depth interviews and online secondary data to develop a theoretical framework of “NFT characteristics–consumer cognition and emotion–consumer response”. This framework identifies five key differential characteristics of NFT: aesthetics, innovativeness, scarcity, interactivity, and profitability. Further, it elucidates their impact on consumer response, revealing the underlying psychological mechanism which combines personal self and social self with cognition and emotion, and uncovering the social norm influence as a moderator. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge on NFT marketing, offering insights for brands to enhance consumer brand attitudes and promote favorable behaviors through NFT in Metaverse.