Instagram, one of the world’s largest social media platforms, will discontinue NFT collecting and showcasing in the coming days. Stephane Kasriel, Meta’s Commerce and Fintech Lead, made this known on Monday, March 13th.
According to Kasriel, Instagram will now focus on supporting individuals, creators, and businesses. Neither Kasriel nor Meta has been clear about why the company made the sudden decision. However, creators who benefitted from Meta x Instagram’s NFTs are apparently disappointed.
One renowned creator, David Krugman, blasted the company for its recent decision, calling it a short-sighted move. The CEO of Carnaval Art also called out Instagram for the halt in NFT support. He recently stated that Instagram lacked foresight and claimed the company’s decision to remove non-fungible tokens from its platform was due to fear. Despite the heavy lashes from previous beneficiaries, Instagram may not be taking a U-turn anytime soon.
The Evolution of Instagram’s NFTs
Instagram shared its plans to introduce digital collectibles into its platform in May 2022. Facebook, its sister company, also implemented this strategy. Users could cross-post NFTs on Facebook and Instagram. Although the innovation was first extended to users in the United States, Meta expanded to 100 countries worldwide.
In the latter part of 2022, users could create, mint, and trade NFTs on Instagram. The metaverse-focused company also ensured that NFTs could be traded without gas fees on the platform. Meta supported a seamless integration with external decentralized wallets.
Further, Meta collaborated with several blockchain networks to solidify its web3 course. The giant social media company started with the Polygon network, the Ethereum network, and the Flow blockchain network. Then, on the 2nd of November, 2022, Instagram announced via Twitter that the social platform now supports Solana NFTs.
Last month, Mark Zuckerberg noted that Meta would try to be more efficient in 2023. In 2021 and 2022, the company burned billions of dollars experimenting with the metaverse and web3 concept. Yesterday, it was revealed that the company has plans to lay off another 10,000 staff. In November last year, Meta laid off over 11,000 staff after the company’s stock and valuation plummeted by over 70%.
With NFTs out of the picture in Instagram, it is yet to be seen how the company will integrate other web3 features. Perhaps, Meta’s decision to dissolve its NFT fusion with Instagram will help the company become more “efficient.” In the meantime, Meta is yet to reveal how the web3 integration impacted its finances.
