Meta said that it has made the difficult decision to discontinue support for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – digital collectibles – after just one year of providing the service. With the crypto market in a turbulent state, Meta believes that NFTs don’t have a future and is winding down its efforts to support them.
This is after having tested the product with select Instagram creators in May 2020, and then expanding NFT support on Instagram to 100 countries in July. Stephane Kasriel, Head of commerce and financial technologies, announced that the company will sunset its NFT and digital collectibles features on Instagram and Facebook.
First: a big Thank You to the partners who joined us on this journey and who're doing great work in a dynamic space. Proud of the relationships we built. And look forward to supporting the many NFT creators who continue using Instagram and Facebook to amplify their work. [2/5]
— Stephane Kasriel (@skasriel) March 13, 2023
Meta ends support for NFTs on Facebook and Instagram
Stephane Kasriel, the social media firm’s fintech head, announced on Monday that they are winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) to focus on other ways to support creatives, people, and businesses. Last year, the company rolled out support for NFTs on Instagram and Facebook, however, a series of recent events have caused a downfall in the speculative crypto asset.
The FTX exchange crash into bankruptcy, followed by the collapse of three U.S. banks, two of which were crypto-focused, have all played their part. In response to this, Kasriel declared they will continue to invest in fintech tools, streamlining payments with Meta Pay, making checkout and payouts easier, and investing in messaging payments across Meta.
Mark Zuckerberg’s drive to make 2023 the “year of efficiency” has caused the NFT integrations and Reels Play bonus program to be casualties. Last year also saw the shutdown of Diem and Meta’s Novi digital wallet. Despite this, other companies have rushed into the NFT market, which crashed in 2022 after a period of hype in early 2021.
However, crypto has been under pressure since late 2022 after the FTX crypto exchange crashed. This was followed by the collapse of three major US banks, including Signature Bank and SVB Financial Group’s Silicon Valley Bank, as well as crypto-based lender Silvergate Capital Corp.
Kasriel has stated that they will continue to focus on creating opportunities for creators and businesses to connect with their fans and monetize. Areas they are going to focus on include messaging and monetization opportunities for Reels.
Announcing the update, Stephane Kasriel, Leading Commerce & FinTech at Meta, said,
We’ll continue investing in fintech tools that people and businesses will need for the future. We’re streamlining payments w/ Meta Pay, making checkout & payouts easier, and investing in messaging payments across Meta.