Instagram and NFTs

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, revealed the relationship between Instagram and NFTs, and said that the video and photo-sharing app, Instagram, is preparing to add non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the platform.

"We're working on bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near term," Zuckerberg said of Instagram and NFTs, in his appearance at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. The Facebook founder did not provide details about the implementation date.

Casey Newton, the platform's newsletter writer, tweeted from the conference that Zuckerberg also said he hopes in the coming months Instagram users will be able to release their NFTs on the platform.

Last October, Meta changed its popular name from Facebook to focus on projects related to metaverses. The company's reports in the fourth quarter of 2021 revealed for the first time that financial details of its augmented and virtual reality research and development business, Reality Labs, showed losses exceeding $10 billion. To be fair, though, the Meta Corner in the Metaverse has yet to be published, so it will be hard to make a profit from it.

This is not Meta's first attempt at a project related to cryptocurrency and the integration of Instagram and NFTs. In 2019, the company indicated plans to create Libra, later renamed Diem, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar that failed due to a lack of regulatory approval and community response. The project was acquired by Silvergate Capital, although some former Meta employees are now looking to revive the open source stablecoin by building their own network.

Social media companies have been looking to implement cryptocurrency and NFTs into their platforms, including Instagram and NFTs. This follows Twitter's famous decision to add support for NFT profile pictures in January. Reddit applied NFT avatars from its own collection, and adult site OnlyFans enabled NFT profile pictures in December 2020.

It's not just social media giants with Instagram and NFTs looking to get in on the action that crypto has to offer. Conventional finance firms are showing their interest in the space with major credit card company American Express, hinting at its expansion into metaverse, according to trademark filings.

Applications to the US Patent and Trademark Office this week showed that American Express is ready to offer virtual banking and exchange services, cryptocurrency services and enable the use of its credit cards in the NFT market.