Stephane Kasriel, Meta’s head of commerce and financial technology, said on March 13 that his company plans to discontinue its non-fungible token (NFT) functionality.
Meta will pursue fintech instead of NFT
Kastiel said in a Twitter thread:
“We are now phasing out Crypto collectibles (NFTs) to focus on other ways to support creators, individuals and businesses.”
Kasriel hinted that the NFT feature will no longer be available on Facebook and Instagram, as he said Meta is designed to support creators who continue to use those platforms.
He also said the company would offer users other ways to monetize their work. Specifically, he said Meta aims to provide monetization opportunities on Facebook’s video platform, Reels, through simplified Meta Pay and messaging payments. He stressed that the company will “continue to invest in fintech tools”.
The decision to stop supporting NFTs was met with backlash as commentators criticized the company’s relatively short involvement in the NFT space.
Facebook’s Failed NFT Plan
Meta first hinted at supporting NFTs in December 2021. It began rolling out the feature on Instagram in May and gradually expanded support over the following months. By September 2022, Meta will allow all US users to share NFTs on Facebook and Instagram.
In addition, in May 2022, Meta began to cooperate with Polygon to develop the NFT platform. The effort to allow users to mint and sell NFTs is still in beta as of November 2022, according to reports from Polygon itself. Today’s news presumably means that the project has or will be discontinued.
Expectations for NFT support are also closely tied to Meta’s virtual reality (VR) and “metaverse” efforts. However, these products did not end up using NFTs for their tradable items, and the company’s VR division as a whole posted a significant loss in late 2022.
Facebook’s fading NFT ambitions may be related to the reduction in NFT market activity. Unrelated NFT platform OpenSea saw a daily trading volume of just $750,000 on March 13, according to DAppRadar. At the height of the NFT craze — August 2021 to May 2022 — OpenSea’s transaction volume has been in the tens of millions.
Facebook’s arch-rival Twitter continues to support NFTs in the form of profile pictures (PFP) and marketplace links.
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