SNEAK PEEK
- Meta is discontinuing NFTs on its platforms owing to the cryptocurrency market undergoing a downfall.
- The platform launched support for creators by enabling them to share NFTs on Instagram and Facebook in 2022, as crypto’s popularity bloomed.
- Meta will invest in fintech tools, streamline payments, invest in messaging payments and focus on launching more avenues for creators.
On March 13, Meta’s head of commerce and financial technologies, Stephane Kasriel, shared on Twitter that Meta is discontinuing its NFT support. With this move, the platform will shift its attention to other ways to help businesses, creators, and individuals.
Kasriel further said that the company is giving importance to ways that allow users to connect with fans as well as monetize. The focus will be on tools like creating payment rails and using its messaging applications, besides monetizing Reels.
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 impact at scale, such as messaging and monetization opps for Reels. [4/5]
— Stephane Kasriel (@skasriel) March 13, 2023
Specifically, Kasriel emphasized on Meta Pay, which could support crypto in the coming time, as appears from the trademark filings from May.
NFTs were short-lived on the platform since testing started in May with chosen creators on Instagram, after which it expanded to Facebook the next month.
In August, the NFT features expanded more with Instagram, making NFT tools available in 100 countries. In November 2022, Meta introduced an “end-to-end toolkit” to both mint and trade non-fungible tokens on Instagram.
However, the announcement invited criticism, with Dave Krugman, an NFT artist, saying that it was “a short-sighted move,” and Meta quitting before it even began.
Podcaster Marc Colcer expressed that the decision looked short-sighted for a firm that seems to be thinking long term. Colcer even asked for transparency on the decision to scrap NFT support.
The co-founder of Earth Labs, Allen Hena, said that Meta scrapped the idea upon realizing that utilizing public crypto networks wouldn’t enable attacking creators the way the platform has been until now.
The decision to scrap the NFT tools is in line with Meta’s other cost-cutting steps since the company is shifting its attention to its costly metaverse goals.
