Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Meta's Instagram will soon allow artists to create and sell their own NFTs both right on the social media platform and off it.
Why it matters: Big Tech wants in on crypto, and the social media juggernaut's entry into NFTs points to growing competition between marketplaces in spite of dwindling trading volumes and falling prices.
Driving the news: IG's feature will roll out to a small group of select creators in the U.S. to start, according to Meta.
What they're saying: "My hope is this feature empowers artists to more heavily explore web3," Vittoria tells Axios via Twitter DM.
Details: Meta won't charge fees for posting or sharing an NFT on IG, though, app store fees still apply.
Between the lines: Minting or the creating of NFTs on IG will start on Polygon, a boon for the layer-2 blockchain (a separate blockchain built on top of Ethereum) given the potential onboarding of IG's billion active users.
What's next: Here's what we know about Instagram's plans for NFTs:
The big picture: IG isn't the only social shop getting into the mix. Reddit's second NFT collection has defied the trends of crypto winter, rolling out "blockchain-backed collectible avatars" in July.
Flashback: The feature rollout is a continuation of Meta's foray into what it calls "digital collectibles," which started with a test announced in May.
The bottom line: "At Meta, we’re looking at what creators are already doing across our technologies in order to improve the experience, help them create more monetization opportunities, and bring NFTs to a broader audience," the firm said in a blog post at the time.
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