Meta discontinuing NFTs on Facebook and Instagram
The ephemeral NFT capabilities were originally introduced in May, but according to Meta's financial technology lead, the company is "winding down" the tools to concentrate on other areas.
After around 10 months after its first deployment, the large tech company Meta is discontinuing its nonfungible token functionalities on its social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram. The announcement was made through Twitter on March 13 by Stephane Kasriel, Meta's head of commerce and financial technology. He stated that Meta is "winding down" its NFT support in order to "concentrate on other methods to serve artists, people, and enterprises."
According to Kasriel, the company will continue to give users the opportunity to "connect with their fans and monetize," and will concentrate on tools like developing payment rails on its platform and through its messaging apps, as well as monetizing Reels, the brief videos that are featured on Facebook and Instagram.
Kasriel specifically referred to the company's payment platform Meta Pay, which in the future may enable cryptocurrencies in accordance with trademark applications from May.
NFTs on the platforms were very short-lived since testing began in May with select producers on Instagram before spreading to Facebook in June. In August, Instagram made NFT tools available in more than 100 countries, expanding the NFT functionality once again. Met released an "end-to-end toolbox" for minting and selling NFTs within Instagram in November of last year. NFT artist David Krugman tweeted that the news was "a short-sighted decision" and that Meta "left before [it] had begun." The crypto community was incensed by the statement.
“The trust earned over the past year is now squandered,” Krugman added.
Also read: Why NFTs are Bad for the Environment
The elimination of Meta's NFT tools fits in with other cost-cutting initiatives taken by the corporation as a whole as it concentrates on its pricey metaverse goals.
Its business Reality Labs, which creates metaverses, had its largest-ever yearly losses last year, coming in at $13.7 billion. Moreover, Meta implemented its first big layoff in November, laying off 11,000 employees, or 13% of its workforce.
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