Zuckerberg: Instagram will soon add NFTs

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 said at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. The Facebook founder did not provide a specific time frame for implementation.

Casey Newton, author of the newsletter Platformer, tweeted that Zuckerberg also said he hopes that in the coming months, Instagram users will be able to mint their own NFTs on the platform.

At SXSW, Mark Zuckerberg just said 'hopefully' you'll be able to mint NFTs on Instagram in the next few months
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) March 15, 2022
Meta did not immediately respond to a question from Cointelegraph about when the NFT feature would go live.

Last October, Facebook changed its name to Meta to focus on projects related to the Metaverse. The company's fourth-quarter 2021 report, which revealed financial details for its virtual and augmented reality research and development business, Reality Labs, for the first time, showed losses of more than $10 billion. To be honest, though, since Meta's corner of the metaverse isn't live yet, it's hard to make money out of it.

This is not Meta's first foray into a cryptocurrency-related project. In 2019, the company hinted at its plans to create "Libra" (later renamed "Diem"), a dollar-pegged stablecoin, but it was unsuccessful due to a lack of regulatory approval and community resistance. The project was acquired by Silvergate Capital, although some former Meta employees now hope to revive the open-source stablecoin by building their own network.

The social media company has been looking to distribute cryptocurrencies and NFTs on its platform after Twitter made a decision in January to add support for NFT avatars. Reddit donates NFT avatars from its own collection, and adult site OnlyFans enabled the NFT avatar feature in December 2020.

It’s not just social media giants looking to get in on the action the crypto industry has to offer. Traditional financial firms have also shown interest in the space, with major credit card company American Express hinting at expanding into the Metaverse, according to trademark filings.

This week, American Express filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office showing that the company is ready to offer virtual banking and transaction services, cryptocurrency services, and allow its credit cards to be used in the NFT marketplace.