Are Instagram, Facebook late to the NFT party?

Sahana Kiran
NFT
Source – Pixabay

The NFT industry witnessed a significant boom last year. The unique and digitized way of owning art lured in a plethora of individuals from all across the globe. With several mainstream platforms pouring their money into the field, the community was assured that NFTs were a pertinent investment. Things could be changing as OpenSea, the largest marketplace was seen experiencing low volumes. In the midst of this, Meta was prepping to further expand its interest in NFTs.

Mark Zuckerberg-run Meta revealed that Instagram would be testing NFTs back in May. While several complained that introducing NFTs during the bear market was a bad idea, Zuckerberg revealed that the tokens would soon come to Facebook as well.

In a recent Facebook post, Zuckerberg highlighted ways that content creators could make money through social media. While listing out an array of different ways of monetizing content, Zuckerberg addressed the inclusion of non-fungible tokens.

As seen in the above image, Instagram would be further expanding its NFT test on Instagram. In addition to this, Facebook would soon carry out similar tests. However, it would be initially limited to a small group of creators based in the US.

Twitter emerged as one of the first social media platforms to embrace NFTs. With several mainstream companies doing the same, Meta’s latest move did not come as a surprise to many. Yet, some speculated that Meta could have been a little too late for the non-fungible token party.

Is the fervor around NFTs slowly dying?

The total volume of prominent NFT marketplaces was $7.18 billion in April 2022. However, this number dropped to a low of $4 billion in May.

Source

This number is likely to be reduced by the end of June. As per recent data, the monthly volume of June so far was just $757 million. With less than 10 days left for the month to end, it is nearly impossible for the NFT space to achieve its previous volume.

While the ongoing bear market has a huge role to play, a few others speculate that the interest in NFT has dipped since its boom in September 2021. With low volumes and decreased interest in the space, will Facebook and Instagram’s NFT-centric feature thrive?