Meta-owned Instagram has begun testing digital holdings or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) this week, Instagram CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, as the global NFT market slows.
Zuckerberg confirmed that the social network is testing NFTs on Instagram, with “similar functionality” soon to be available on Facebook.
And he said:
Similar functionality will be available on Facebook soon, along with augmented reality NFTs on Instagram Stories via Spark AR.
In a video, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said that a small group of US users will display NFT on their pages, stories, and in their messages.
Clicking on the tag labeled “Digital Holdings” will display details such as the name of the creator and owner of the NFT.
“This week we started testing digital holdings with a handful of American creators and aggregators who will be able to share NFTs on Instagram,” Mosseri said. There will be no fees associated with posting or sharing digital collectibles on Instagram.”
NFTs on Instagram
This week we’re beginning to test digital collectibles with a handful of US creators and collectors who will be able to share NFTs on Instagram. There will be no fees associated with posting or sharing a digital collectible on IG.
See you next week!
pic.twitter.com/VuJbMVSBDR
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) May 9, 2022
“I want to acknowledge up front that NFT, blockchain and Web3 technologies more broadly are all approximately the distribution of trust and the distribution of power,” Mosseri added in the video .
“But Instagram is basically a centralized platform, so there is tension,” he said, adding that support for NFTs on Instagram could increase the technology’s popularity.
Instagram’s push for NFTs comes at a time when sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have fallen 92 percent since September final year, according to data from popular website NonFungible.
Selling NFTs has fallen to a daily average of about 19,000 in the past week, down 92 percent from a zenith of about 225,000 in September.
