Facebook Parent Company Meta to Wind Down NFTs on its Platforms

Facebook parent company Meta to wind down NFTs on its platforms like Instagram and Facebook

Intro: Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, wind down NFTs operations on both social media platforms to focus on other ways to support creators and businesses, said Meta’s head of commerce and financial technologies, Stephane Kasriel on Twitter. Meta's discontinuing support was initiated as the crypto market continues to spiral.

Stephane Kasriel wrote on Twitter, “We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses.” Instead of Non-Fungible Token, Meta is going to focus on “areas where we can make an impact at scale,” Kasriel said. The company intends to shift investments away from NFTs and towards its payment service Meta Pay and other features that allow creators to earn money directly on platforms. Meta began experimenting with NFTs on Instagram and Facebook and then expanded the NFT features for creators across 100 countries.

In another post, Kasriel said, “Let me be clear: creating opportunities for creators and businesses to connect with their fans and monetize remains a priority, and we’re going to focus on areas where we can make an impact at scale, such as messaging and monetization apps for Reels.” He also stated that Meta will continue to invest in future fintech tools that people and businesses will require. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that users would be able to display existing NFTs as well as potentially mint new ones on Instagram, implying that digital token technology could also play a role in the company’s metaverse vision. He also stated that Meta will continue to invest in future fintech tools that people and businesses will require. “We’re streamlining payments w/ Meta Pay, making checkout & payouts easier, and investing in messaging payments across Meta,” he said. Last year, when the speculative crypto asset was exploding in popularity, the company added support for creators to share NFTs on Instagram and Facebook, when sales of cartoon apes to video clips reached billions of dollars.