Instagram is adding NFTs soon says Mark Zuckerberg

cointelegraph.com:

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that its video and photo sharing app, Instagram, is preparing to add non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the platform.

“We’re working on bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near term,” Zuckerberg reportedly stated in an appearance at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. The Facebook founder did not provide specifics on when the implementation would happen.

Casey Newton, writer for the Platformer newsletter, tweeted from the conference that Zuckerberg also said that he hopes in the coming months, Instagram users would be able to mint their own NFTs on the platform.

At #SXSW, Mark Zuckerberg just said that “hopefully” in the coming months you’ll be able to mint NFTs within Instagram

Meta did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph on when NFT functionality would be live.

Last October, Meta famously changed its name from Facebook to focus on its Metaverse related projects. Company reports from the last quarter of 2021 revealed for the first time the financial details of its virtual and augmented reality research and development business, Reality Labs, showing losses at over $10 billion. To be fair though, as Meta’s corner of the metaverse is not yet live, it’d be hard to turn a profit from it.

This isn’t Meta’s first attempt at a crypto related project. In 2019 the company signaled plans to create “Libra” (later rebranded to “Diem”), a USD-pegged stablecoin which flunked due to a lack of regulatory approval and community pushback. The project was purchased by Silvergate Capital, although some ex-Meta employees are now looking to revive the open-source stablecoin through building a network of their own.

Related: Vale Diem: How Facebook’s ambitious stablecoin project came to an end

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