Big Tech firm Meta is scrapping its nonfungible token features across its social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, around 10 months after they first launched.
Stephane Kasriel, Meta’s head of commerce and financial technologies, tweeted the news on March 13, saying Meta is “winding down” its NFT support to “focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses.”
Some product news: across the company, we’re looking closely at what we prioritize to increase our focus. We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses. [1/5]
— Stephane Kasriel (@skasriel) March 13, 2023
Kasriel added the firm is still prioritizing ways for users to “connect with their fans and monetize” and will focus on tools such as building payment rails on its platform and through its messaging apps, along with monetizing Reels, the short-form videos that feature on Facebook and Instagram.
In particular, Kasriel mentioned a focus on Meta Pay, the firm’s payment platform, which in the future could support cryptocurrency according to trademark filings from May.
And we’ll continue investing in fintech tools that people and businesses will need for the future. We’re streamlining payments w/ Meta Pay, making checkout & payouts easier, and investing in messaging payments across Meta. [5/5]
— Stephane Kasriel (@skasriel) March 13, 2023
NFTs on the platforms were relatively short-lived, as testing began in May with select creators on Instagram before expanding to Facebook in June.
The NFT features expanded again in August as Instagram made NFT tools available to over 100 countries. In November last year, Metlaunched an “end-to-end toolkit” for minting and trading NFTs within Instagram.
The announcement received scathing criticism from the crypto community, with NFT artist Dave Krugman tweeting it was “a short-sighted move” and that Meta “quit before [it] even started.”
And “winding down for now” is just wild. The trust earned…
..
