During a panel at last week’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, Mark Zuckerberg announced, “We’ll be bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near future.” With Facebook transitioning to Meta, this announcement is not surprising as NFTs will be integral to the metaverse.
Instagram to Become an NFT Marketplace
During the conversation Mark Zuckerberg had in the panel with Daymond John, he said, “I’m not ready to announce exactly what that’s going to be today, but over the next several months, you’ll get the ability to bring some of your NFTs in, and hopefully over time be able to mint things within that environment.”
The statement by Zuckerberg only confirms what the CEO of Instagram, Adam Mosseri said in December of 2021. At that time Mosseri said, “Nothing to announce yet but we are definitely actively exploring NFTs and how we can make them more accessible to a broader audience. I think its an interesting place that we can play and also a way that hopefully helps creators.”
Since there is very little detail on the announcement, the one thing we can surmise is NFTs will have yet another platform where they can be minted and sold. The entry by Meta/Instagram was expected because of the growing market of NFTs. According to Deloitte, NFT sales of just sports is going to be $2 billion in 2022, it is worth mentioning again that is just sports. OpenSea reported $4 billion in sales just in January of 2022, and at this rate 2022 will surpass the $24.9 billion of 2021.
With so much money in the market, more players are entering the marketplace, including TikTok, which may have pushed Instagram’s announcement.
TikTok and NFTs
The growth of TikTok has been amazing and the company keeps innovating with new ways to engage with its users. In October of 2021, TikTok launched its NFT series TikTok Top Moments.
TikTok is bringing unique and groundbreaking moments by curating special milestones on its platform. According to the company, “TikTok Top Moments will feature a selection of culturally-significant TikTok videos from some of the most beloved creators on the platform. These featured creators, renowned for their cultural impact, have partnered with prominent NFT artists on One-of-one and Limited Edition NFTs.”
The One-of-one NFTs will be auctioned on Layer-1 Ethereum. The Limited Edition NFTs will be sold on Immutable X (Layer-2) and have the benefit of zero gas fees.
