Instagram Chief Admits on Actively Exploring the Integration of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

Big brands have been cashing up on the craze surrounding the rapid growth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) recently. Facebook subsidiary and social media giant Instagram seems to be the latest one stepping into it.

Instagram will likely embed NFTs into its native posts and will feature a label named “collectible” thereby alerting users about the NFT they’ve purchased. In a post last Saturday, December 18, Instagram Chief Adam Mosseri said that the platform is currently accessing non-fungible tokens and how it can make it more accessible.

In a Q&A post on his Instagram stories, Mosseri also replied on his thoughts on integrating NFTs. To this he noted: "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 it is an interesting place that we can play and also a way to hopefully help creators”.

Reports regarding Facebook’s photo-sharing app working on NFTs circulated earlier this year. Back in July 2021, app developer Alessandro Paluzzi also shared details about the possibility of Instagram bringing its own non-fungible tokens as the platform was looking to work on collectibles.

As per Paluzzi’s tweets, Instagram post that will offer NFTs will come with the name “Collectibles” to alert users regarding NFTs that they purchased. While Instagram has brought some interesting new features recently, there’s no concrete mention of NFTs.

As said earlier, brands have been increasing adopting NFTs in recent times. Besides, NFTs have been increasingly finding a use case in the ownership of digital art. With Instagram being one of the largest platforms for photo-sharing, it can serve the best use-case for NFTs.

Recently, we have seen that popular footwear companies like Nike and Adidas taking a slice of the NFT world. Adidas announced its “Into the Metaverse” collection featuring virtual wearables for the blockchain-based gaming world, the Sandbox.

Just last month Nike started an online game zone on the Roblox platform called Nikeland. In this space, fans can design an avatar of themselves and play sports in a virtual space. Nike also acquired a digital collectables company RTFKT Studios. It allows the dealer to sell virtual sneakers to people who can customize their online avatars by following the latest fashion trend.