During panel discussion at SXSW (South by Southwest) conference Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company plans to introduce NFTs into it’s video and pictures sharing platform; Instagram.
“We’re working on bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near term,” Meta (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at a panel at Austin’s South by Southwest Festival on Tuesday, according to a tweetfrom Engadget Senior Editor Karissa Bell. Zuckerberg added, however, that “I’m not ready to kind of announce exactly what that’s going to be today.”
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.
Also Read: Facebook, Instagram Will Allow Users Create, Display And Sell NFTs.
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.
Social media companies have been looking to implement cryptocurrencies and NFTs into their platforms following Twitter’s famous decision to add support for NFT profile pictures in January. Reddit implemented NFT avatars from its own collection, and adult site OnlyFans enabled NFT profile pictures in December 2020.
It’s not only social media giants looking to get in on the action that crypto offers. Traditional finance companies are showing their interest in the space, with major credit card company, American Express, hinting at its expansion into the Metaverse according to trademark filings.
Applications to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week showed American Express primed to offer virtual banking and exchange services, cryptocurrency services, and enabling the use of its credit cards at an NFT marketplace
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