Instagram Is Rolling Out NFT Support
Instagram has begun rolling out their NFT integrations, pulling info from crypto wallets and tagging ownership.
In what would have been huge news any other week, Facebook and Instagram just announced that they will be rolling out support for NFTs. The process is simple: connect your wallet, and Instagram will pull in your NFTs into a gallery like we’re used to. The NFTs in your wallet are verified to be yours, and will have the normal metadata you would expect to see with an NFT, such as how many were minted in this collection, and what blockchain it’s on. The creator and collector are also automatically tagged in Instagram, if they’re both signed up.
In its announcement, Instagram noted that it will be launching with Ethereum and Polygon integrations, and that integrations with Solana and Flow were coming soon after. As for the wallet integrations, they’re launching with MetaMask, Rainbow Wallet, and Trust Wallet built out, and Coinbase Wallet, Dapper, and Phantom are next.
The company also made it clear that there were no fees associated with these NFT functions, and that they would be buying carbon offset credits for any energy emittance coming from the use of digital collections.
All of this comes during an interesting time for Instagram’s parent company, Meta (formerly Facebook). Meta’s stock is down 42% over the past 6 months as its reported declining users, and the company has doubled down on their R&D expenses for its virtual reality metaverse–spending over $10B this year. Meta’s VR sales have been doubling each year, and were at a respectable $2.2B for 2021, though the company’s high fee model has raised some skepticism.
Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, also stated that the company is working on virtual reality and augmented reality versions of NFTs to overlay with their Instagram stories and Oculus VR headset system.