Flow Token pumps 45% as Meta uses it to activate Instagram NFTs

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Meta has announced that non-fungible tokens (NFT) can now be posted on Instagram in 100 countries using the Flow blockchain.

Important points

• On Thursday, Instagram’s parent company Meta announced that users of the social media site can now post NFTs on that platform using the Flow blockchain.
• The Flow blockchain was developed by the NFT pioneers at Dapper Labs who created successful NFT projects such as CryptoKitties, NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day and UFC Strike.
• The FLOW token rose 45% in the last 24 hours, to a peak price of $2.97 on the news according to CoinMarketCap at the time of writing, but it has since given back much of those gains.

Meta has announced that the Instagram photo-sharing platform now supports publishing NFTs. The announcement was made yesterday as an update to the company’s statement from May that it would enable NFT posting using the Flow blockchain, which was purpose-built for NFT use.

“We are starting international expansion to 100 countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas. In addition, we now support wallet connections with Coinbase Wallet and Dapper, as well as the ability to post digital collectibles imprinted on the Flow blockchain,” the statement says , “Supported blockchains at this time include Ethereum, Polygon and Flow. There are no fees associated with posting or sharing a digital collectible on Instagram.”

Dapper Labs created the Flow blockchain to support all aspects of NFT storage, trading and sharing. Dapper is also responsible for creating some of the most popular NFT collections in the asset class’s 10-year history with such hits at CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot. As a result of the news, the native crypto for that network – known as FLOW – traded as high as $2.97 across cryptocurrency exchanges in the past 24 hours, representing a 45% peak that has since fallen back to single digits levels.

In February of this year, Meta saw the largest valuation drop in US stock market history, when its share price fell 26%, wiping out more than $250 billion in market value in a single day. The company cited steep declines in Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp ad revenue due to stiff competition from competitors such as TikTok, YouTube and WeChat. However, Meta continues to work on its blockchain and crypto strategy as in March it created several crypto-related trademarks for crypto tokens, blockchain software, virtual currency exchanges, as well as financial services and currency trading services. In addition, Meta’s original announcement of its attack on NFTs came in May.

Only time will tell where the addition of NFTs to Instagram will take Flow, and what impact it will have on tech behemoth Meta.