Key Takeaways:
- Meta CEO intends to mint avatar clothing in the metaverse as NFT.
- Zuckerberg has been actively making moves in the blockchain sector.
LAGOS (CoinChapter.com) — Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), has confirmed that their acquired social media platform Instagram would integrate non-fungible tokens (NFT).
The billionaire entrepreneur made this announcement while speaking at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference. He disclosed that Instagram users would soon display and mint NFTs on the social media platform.
Zuckerberg’s announcement confirms months of speculations and rumors surrounding plans to integrate NFTs on Instagram. However, he did not disclose the specific timeframe the NFTs would launch on Instagram. He said:
“I’m not ready to kind of announce exactly what that’s going to be today. But over the next several months, the ability to bring some of your NFTs in, hopefully over time be able to mint things within that environment.”
he noted.
Zuckerberg also said that he hopes avatar clothing in the metaverse can be minted as NFTs soon. However, he further indicated that they must sort a bunch of technicalities before NFTs can be launched on Instagram.
Zuckerberg Making Bold Moves In The Blockchain Space
It is important to note that the Instagram NFT project isn’t Mark Zuckerberg’s first foray into the blockchain space.
The Meta CEO had in 2019 attempted to launch a digital currency called Libra (a borderless global currency). However, the project faced many obstacles from the political, financial, and regulatory sectors, which resulted in its collapse.
Several of the founding members of the so-called Libra Association abandoned the project within months of its announcement. Mounting pressure from U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) also led to the project’s collapse.
More recently, Zuckerberg announced the rebranding of Facebook to Meta in a bid to focus on its metaverse plan. Additionally, the project in January was reportedly looking into integrating NFTs to its developing crypto wallet Novi.
Additionally, it is worth noting that Instagram isn’t the only social platform to express interest in integrating NFTs. For example, Twitter earlier this year integrated NFT profile pictures and Ethereum wallet compatibility for its Twitter Blue subscribers.
