Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), a video-sharing platform is preparing to add non-Fungible Token (NFTs) to its platform. In an appearance at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, Zuckerberg allegedly stated that the company is working on launching NFTs to Instagram in the near term. The Facebook founder did not say when the deployment will take place.
Meta changed its name from Facebook to focus on its Metaverse-related projects in October of last year. For the first time, financial details of its virtual and AR research and development division, Reality Labs, were released in company records from the Q4 of 2021, indicating damages of almost $10 billion. To be fair, because Meta's piece of the metaverse isn't yet operational, it'd be difficult to profit from it.
From the conference, Casey Newton, a writer for the Platformer newsletter, tweeted that Zuckerberg also said he expects Instagram users will be able to mint their own NFTs in the coming months. Meta did not clarify when NFT functionality would be live.
Furthermore, This is not Meta's first attempt into the crypto world. The company stated plans to launch Libra which is a USD-pegged Stablecoin, in 2019, but the project was postponed due to governmental permission hurdles and community criticism. Despite the fact that Silvergate Capital bought the project, several former Meta employees are now attempting to resurrect the open-source Stablecoin by forming their own network.
Following Twitter's declaration in January that it will allow NFT profile photos, social media companies have started striving to integrate cryptocurrencies and NFTs into their platforms. OnlyFans, an adult website, launched NFT profile photos using avatars from Reddit's repository in December 2020.