Meta confirms NFT testing on Instagram to begin this week

Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Meta will begin testing support for NFTs on Instagram this week, followed by a Facebook rollout

By Shashank Bhardwaj

Image: Shutterstock

Instagram, which is owned by Meta, will begin testing support for digital collectibles or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) this week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a video posted on Instagram and Facebook. The Meta CEO is seen conversing with Tom Bilyeu, a prominent NFT influencer.

Zuckerberg wrote in the caption of his post, “This week we’re starting to test digital collectibles on Instagram so creators and collectors can display their NFTs on their profile.”

In Meta's ongoing attempts to expand the possibilities of self-expression throughout social media and the metaverse, Instagram users will be able to post NFTs on their profiles. "Similar functionality is coming to Facebook soon, along with augmented reality NFTs on Instagram Stories via Spark AR so you can place digital art into physical spaces," Zuckerberg announced.

Meta would start testing NFTs with a small group of American creators and collectors on Instagram. The select test group will be able to upload NFTs that the members developed by themselves or own on the app by integrating third-party digital wallets.

Rainbow, MetaMask, and Trust Wallet are currently compatible wallets. Coinbase, Dapper, and Phantom support will be added soon. Ethereum and Polygon are among the blockchains that will be supported at the launch, and Flow and Solana will be introduced later. This multichain strategy will undoubtedly persuade a diverse group of NFT enthusiasts to use Instagram's upcoming NFT products.

The users will be able to know details about the NFT, such as the name of the creator and NFT owner, by clicking on the ‘digital collectibles’ tag.

Zuckerberg concluded by stating, "I just think the more different tools that creators have to be able to make money, the more they're gonna be able to do their work and hire people to join their team, to build out even more use cases. And that will propel all these platforms forward."

In addition to Zuckerberg’s video, Instagram head Adam Mosseri took to Twitter to announce the new update along with his hope to learn from the community. Mosseri said, "I want to acknowledge upfront that NFTs and blockchain technologies and Web3 more broadly are all about distributing trust, distributing power."

Shashank is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash

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