Zuck teased it at SXSW in March and now it’s here: NFTs for the ‘gram.
According to a video from Instagram head Adam Mosseri, users will be able to display NFTs they’ve made or bought in their feed, Stories, and messages next week.
They’ll appear as “digital collectibles” that list both the owner and creator — and they’ll shimmer, apparently.
The feature will roll out 1st to a handful of US users including actress Cynthia Erivo, VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk (his NFT project is called VeeFriends), and artist Elise Swopes, per TechCrunch.
Mosseri said they’re starting out small because Instagram wants to “learn from the community.”
Zuck also announced…
…that NFTs will make their way to Facebook, and Instagram will eventually get augmented reality NFTs that users can post to Stories using Spark AR — Meta’s AR studio, AKA the tool people use to make all those filters.
Per Mosseri, this is all part of a broader strategy to help creators earn money…
… but will they?
Instagram already serves as an ecommerce platform, so it makes sense that people would eventually be able to buy, sell, and trade NFTs there.
But earlier this week, a report from The Wall Street Journal declared the NFT market is “collapsing.” A daily average of 19k NFTs were sold the 1st week of May, compared to 225k in September — a 92% drop.
Zach Friedman, co-founder of crypto brokerage Secure Digital Markets, told WSJ what stands out now are “utility” NFTs, which come with perks like bottles of wine or lifetime Coachella passes.
Would that work for Instagram?
Well, we know Meta is all about the metaverse, including its Horizon Worlds — a digital platform where users can build worlds and experiences and interact with each other.
Zuck previously talked about how even the clothes your avatar wears could be NFTs, and hinted people could use Instagram to mint NFTs in the future.
To that end, it’s possible creators could produce and sell NFTs that correspond to digital items for use across the metaverse, or access to virtual events or venues.
Perhaps one day, your avatar will even be able to mint or buy itself some legs.
