Instagram Users Will Soon Be Able to Mint and Sell NFTs
The latest update to the platform's Digital Collectibles feature will first be tested among a small group of creators.
Nov 2, 2022 at 10:30 p.m. UTC
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Instagram said that starting this week it will begin allowing a select group of digital creators to mint and sell non-fungible tokens (NFT) directly from the social media platform.
The image-focused app recently launched its Digital Collectibles feature in 100 countries, allowing users to connect to their digital wallets and showcase NFTs that they either created or bought. The connected NFTs can be shown in your feed and include a shimmery effect to indicate authenticity.
The latest update will allow creators to make their own digital collectibles and sell them both on and off Instagram, giving them an "end-to-end toolkit" for creating, displaying and selling NFTs. It will initially launch on the Polygon blockchain and will be tested among a small group of creators in the U.S., including Amber Vittoria, Refik Anadol, Jason Seife, Dave Krugman and several others.
“This move represents a remarkable milestone in the evolution of Instagram’s existing NFT functionality and a natural next step to bring Web3 to the mainstream,” said Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.
Instagram will also allow video-based digital collectibles to be shown on its platform and will add support for the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallet. Prior to this, the platform supported Ethereum, Polygon and Flow blockchains, as well as connections to third-party wallets including Rainbow, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet and Dapper Wallet.
Meta noted that it will not charge fees for displaying and sharing a digital collectible on Instagram or Facebook and it will not charge any additional fees for selling digital collectibles until at least 2024. It added, however, that "digital collectible purchases made within the Instagram app on the Android and iOS operating systems are subject to applicable app store fees."
In addition, it pledged that neither creators nor collectors will need to pay gas fees for digital collectibles bought on Instagram at launch.
In a step-by-step video of the new feature viewed by CoinDesk, it appears that NFT creators will also be able to choose their royalty percentage between 5% to 25%. Creators can then link their bank account or PayPal account to get paid.
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Rosie Perper was the Deputy Managing Editor for Web3 and Learn, focusing on the metaverse, NFTs, DAOs and emerging technology like VR/AR. She has previously worked across breaking news, global finance, tech, culture and business. She holds a small amount of BTC and ETH and several NFTs. Subscribe to her weekly newsletter, The Airdrop.