A group of non-fungible token (or NFT) creators and collectors will soon be able to display their tokens on Instagram. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed in a publication today that the company is testing NFT on the platform, with “similar functionality” coming soon to Facebook.
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said in a video today that a small group of US users will have the ability to display NFTs in their feed, stories, and messages. NFT details are displayed similar to profiles and tagged products and are called “digital collectibles”. Clicking on the tag will display details such as the name of the creator and owner.
NFTs on Instagram
This week we begin testing 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
Mosseri said the test is small to start with so Instagram can learn from the community. Perhaps in an attempt to address mistrust of a major social media platform jumping to NFTs, it poses a tension between big companies like Instagram and the decentralized ethos of Web3.
“I want to acknowledge up front that NFT and blockchain and Web3 technologies in general are all about the distribution of trust, the distribution of power,” says Mosseri. “But Instagram is fundamentally a centralized platform, so there is tension there.”
NFTs minted on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains will be supported initially, with Solana and Flow coming soon, according to Meta spokeswoman Christine Pai.
Mosseri emphasizes that support for NFT on Instagram could help introduce the technology to a broader range of people. Instagram isn’t the first platform to do this: In January, Twitter introduced NFT to the platform as hexagon profile pictures. An icon in the corner of NFT’s Instagram posts also appears as a hexagon. Although businesses and celebrities have been quick to adopt NFTs, and some recent sales have produced temporary spikes in activity, a report from The Wall Street Journal last week said sales have stagnated since a peak last September.
Update May 9 at 1 p.m. Added a Mark Zuckerberg video ad embed.