Meta expands NFT functions on Instagram internationally

Meta Platforms Inc. announced today that it is expanding non-fungible token features on its Instagram social media platform internationally to over 100 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the move today on Instagram, sharing what he called a “coming soon NFT” of an old baseball card of himself.

Initially, only a handful of creators could have NFTs on their Instagram profiles during an experimental pilot program that started in May. NFTs are a type of cryptographic asset built on blockchain technology that links ownership to virtual objects such as digital artwork and collectibles, allowing them to be bought, sold and traded.

Users will be able to instantly connect to third-party crypto wallets, including Rainbow, MetaMask, Trust Wallet and Coinbase Wallet. An integration with Dapper Wallet is coming soon.

Meta also announced that Instagram supports NFTs minted on the Ethereum, Polygon and Flow blockchains. There are no fees for posting or sharing NFT artwork on Instagram.

Once a wallet is connected, Instagram members can choose which NFTs to display on their profiles or share on the platform. Once posted, it will be identifiable with a special shimmer effect, and other users can see information (public metadata) in the description. These posts will be linked to their public profile.

Since NFTs are part of a creator and collector culture and designed to spark conversation, Instagram will also allow them to be automatically attributed with this information. This is of course also subject to the privacy settings. As digital assets, they also retain value and spur speculation, this has led to a booming market that exploded to over $41 billion in 2021, but suffered a 25% market value decline in the second quarter of 2022 during what was dubbed “crypto winter.”

“We collect and organize public data from open blockchains, such as Ethereum, to provide this feature,” Meta explained in a post. “From this public blockchain data, we can only identify which collectibles belong to collectors and creators when they connect third-party wallets to Instagram.”

The goal of adding NFTs to Instagram, Meta said, is to give the community access to this new class of digital assets by collecting and displaying them on the platform.

Meta’s pilot program in May followed Twitter’s own move to allow users to use NFTs as profile pictures, which appear as soft hexagons when used.

Image: Meta