Meta ending support for NFTs on Facebook, Instagram

Meta is winding down its work with NFTs on Facebook and Instagram, Meta commerce and fintech lead Stephane Kasriel announced on Monday.   

The move implies that in the coming weeks, Meta will stop testing the minting and selling of NFTs on Instagram, as well as the ability to share NFTs on Instagram and Facebook, as reported by The Verge. 

Some product news: across the company, we're looking closely at what we prioritize to increase our focus. We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses. [1/5]

— Stephane Kasriel (@skasriel) March 13, 2023

“We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses,” Kasriel tweeted. He also said that the company would now focus on “areas where we can make impact at scale”. The move is signaling rapid shift in perspective how the tech industry now sees NFTs.  

It wasn’t until May of last year that a small group of Instagram creators and Facebook users were able to try out NFTs.  By July, Meta expanded NFT support on Instagram for creators in 100 countries. In just less than a year Meta is now abandoning the project.  

A Meta spokesman told TechCrunch that the company is moving its resources away from NFTs and onto products like Meta Pay and features that allow creators to earn money directly on Meta platforms, such its tipping feature called gifts. The company is also testing its Ad income feature on Reels.  

While Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has declared 2023 the “year of efficiency”, it appears that the NFT integrations and the Reels Play bonus program will be among the initiatives he eliminates to achieve this goal. Their end also follows the demise of Meta-backed cryptocurrency Diem and the Novi digital wallet. 

Although Meta has decided to withdraw from the NFT market, there are still many other players. For instance, Elon Musk's Twitter is working on NFTs, including the ability to purchase and trade NFTs through Tweets, while Reddit still promotes its digital collectable avatars. 

  According to a February 21 report by AXIOS, the NFT market has recently dropped from billions of dollars per month to a few hundreds of millions, however, it hasn’t died!