Social media Giant Instagram plans to integrate NFTs as early as this week. This report was the suggestion of the Financial Times.
The news, which CoinDesk first reported, comes at a time when interest in NFTs appears to have fallen sharply. This has also overlapped with a crypto market crash.
Further, the move would come just a few months after reports said Meta, Instagram’s owner, tested NFT support for the platform.
Last year, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri was also ridiculed as the company actively explored the space.
The move could help launch a fresh wave of interest in non-fungible tokens. But it also comes on the heels of a nearly 30% drop in NFT volumes over the past week.
This Move Could Stimulate Renewed Interest in NFTs
The social media giant is reportedly planning to integrate NFTs from Ethereum, Polygon, Solana and Flow. Ethereum and Solana, by far, are the biggest blockchains for NFTs. These NFTs are with the former featuring some of the most valuable collections.
Moreover, Instagram will also add support for crypto wallets, including Metamask. However, the launch is initially anticipated to be tested through a pilot program.
Also, the launch could see interest in NFTs skyrocket to 2021 highs, given that Instagram has over 1 billion users. Speaking of NFTs, in general, they are also far more palatable to non Web3 users. They are famous on the basis of the popularity of sports and historical tokens.
In addition, this move could also provide serious competition to established NFT platforms such as OpenSea and LooksRare. Both of these platforms are dwarfed by Instagram in terms of users.
Instagram Did Not Immediately Respond
Instagram’s launch would also come at a time when interest in NFTs has drastically fallen. According to the data from the NFT data aggregator, NFT Go shows that daily volumes in the space have consistently fallen since late April.
Moreover, a large reason for this is that there is ongoing weakness in the crypto market. This weakness has seen nearly $500 billion in market capitalization erased in recent weeks. Given that a bulk of trading happens through cryptocurrencies, this could be a possible reason.
But other factors may also indicate diminishing interest in NFTs. For instance, crypto exchange CoinBase’s recent launch of its NFT platform barely crossed 1000 users.
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