Meta, the tech giant that owns Instagram, has confirmed that the popular photo-sharing app will start testing non-fungible tokens this week, according to an announcement made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The billionaire says that creators and collectors will be able to display digital collectibles on their profiles.
Zuckerberg has also revealed that the app plans to go a step further by letting users display augmented reality NFTs on their Instagram Stories. The feature will be powered by Spark AR, the biggest platform for mobile augmented reality.
Facebook, the social media platform owned by Meta, will launch similar functionality in the near future, according to Zuckerberg.
As reported by U.Today, rumors of Instagram adding support for non-fungible tokens started circulating in late 2021.
In January, The Financial Times confirmed that Meta was working on a feature that would allow both Instagram and Facebook users to flaunt their NFTs. In addition, Facebook was allegedly working on its own marketplace for digital collectibles.
On Sunday, cryptocurrency media outlet Coindesk reported that Instagram was preparing to add support for NFTs on four blockchains: Ethereum, Polygon, Flow and Solana. Meta is yet to confirm which specific blockchain platform its new NFT-related feature will support.
Instagram will not be the first social media platform to introduce NFT profile pictures. Popular microblogging platform Twitter launched similar functionality in late January.
Adult-oriented subscription-based social media platform OnlyFans jumped into NFT profile pictures in February.
Despite growing adoption, the NFT bubble is visibly bursting, with sales crashing by a staggering 92% since last year.
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