Instagram will soon begin testing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the coming week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Facebook.
An NFT or non-fungible token is financial security made up of digital data stored in a blockchain. NFTs may be photos, GIFs, music, or any other kind of artwork.
In a post on his Facebook profile, Zuckerberg wrote:
This week we’re starting to test digital collectibles on Instagram so creators and collectors can display their NFTs on their profiles. Similar functionality is coming to Facebook soon, along with augmented reality NFTs on Instagram Stories via Spark AR so you can place digital art into physical spaces.
Instagram Head Adam Mosseri also confirmed the latest news in a video claiming that the test will begin with a “handful of US creators and collectors” who will be able to showcase digital collectibles on their profiles, feeds, stories, etc.
NFTs on Instagram 🎉
This week we’re beginning to test digital collectibles with a handful of US creators and collectors who will be able to share NFTs on Instagram. There will be no fees associated with posting or sharing a digital collectible on IG.
See you next week! ✌🏼 pic.twitter.com/VuJbMVSBDr
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) May 9, 2022
Mosseri stated:
We think the one really interesting opportunity for a subset of creators is NFTs – the idea of owning a unique digital item. I want to acknowledge upfront that NFTs and blockchain technologies and Web3 more broadly are all about distributing trust, distributing power. But Instagram is fundamentally a centralized platform, so there’s a tension there.
Meta spokesperson Christine Pai stated that the NFTs minted on the Ethereum or Polygon blockchain will be supported initially but will then be migrated to Solana and Flow.
Mosseri highlighted that NFT support on Instagram will help expand the technology to people across the globe.
