Instagram to Add Support for NFTs
Social media platform Instagram will allow creators to mint and sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) directly from the social media platform.
In a Wednesday announcement, Meta said Instagram is developing an NFT minting and sale feature through its app. The upcoming “end-to-end toolkit” for NFTs will allow users to create and launch their own NFTs for sale through Instagram.
“A small group of creators will soon be able to create digital collectibles (NFTs) and sell them right on Instagram,” said Meta’s Head of Commerce and Fintech Stephane Kasriel in a statement.
At launch, Instagram will use the Polygon blockchain for NFT minting. The app will also pull NFT metadata from OpenSea so that collection names and descriptions can be viewed on Instagram.
Meta will roll out the new NFT features to a select group of artists and content creators first before offering the features to a broader audience, the company shared in a statement.
Creators such as photographer DrifterShoots, visual artist Ilse Valfré, and artist Amber Vittoria are among those selected for early access to the new Instagram NFT features.
The image-focused app recently launched its Digital Collectibles feature in 100 countries, allowing users to connect to their digital wallets and showcase NFTs that they either created or bought. The connected NFTs can be shown in your feed and include a shimmery effect to indicate authenticity.
Instagram will also allow video-based digital collectibles to be shown on its platform and will add support for the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallet. Prior to this, the platform supported Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow blockchains, as well as connections to third-party wallets including Rainbow, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet and Dapper Wallet.
Meta noted that it will not charge fees for displaying and sharing a digital collectible on Instagram or Facebook and it will not charge any additional fees for selling digital collectibles until at least 2024.
It added, however, that “digital collectible purchases made within the Instagram app on the Android and iOS operating systems are subject to applicable app store fees.”
As of now, Facebook and Instagram support displaying NFTs on the Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow blockchains, allowing users to connect their wallets to their accounts to display NFTs. Support for Solana and Phantom wallets is coming.
Why the big NFT push? Meta says it believes in the vision of Web3—and wants creators to leverage NFTs to better monetize their content.
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