Come one, come all! Meta to bring NFT minting and trading to Instagram

Social media platform Instagram is set to introduce a number of nonfungible token (NFT)-related tools that will allow creators to mint, show and sel NFTs.

Instagram parent company Meta said on Nov. 2 during its Creator Week 2022 event that the platform would allow its creators to make “digital collectibles” and sell them “both on and off Instagram.”

Meta says creators will have an “end-to-end toolkit” from creating, showing, then selling NFTs within the platform and has chosen the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain as an initial partner for this functionality.

It says a “small group” of United States-based creators will be eligible to test the new features and expansion to other countries will follow, but provided no information on when this would take place.

In addition to its current lineup of supported blockchains that include Ethereum (ETH), Flow (FLOW), and Polygon Meta also revealed its support for the Solana (SOL) blockchain and its popular Phantom wallet.

Support for video NFTs will also be added and metadata such as names and descriptions for select NFT collections will be pulled from NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Meta’s head of commerce and financial technology, Stephane Kasriel, said Meta won’t charge fees to create or sell NFTs until 2024, and blockchain gas fees for buyers will be covered by Meta “at launch” but didn’t clarify how long the launch timeline would be.

Kasriel said NFT transactions would still be subject to “app store fees,” referring to Apple’s 30% commission on NFT sales that has drawn heavy criticism for being more expensive than the average 2.5% commission enforced by NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea.

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With this, buyers seemingly won’t be able to purchase Instagram NFTs using crypto through the Instagram app as both Apple and Google only support in-app purchases using fiat currencies and both forbid buttons, external links, or other actions that give users a way to circumvent their commissions.

Meta has not released how much of a commission it plans to take from NFT sales nor what its creator royalties system will look like, it’s unknown if it will follow the recent pushes from NFT marketplaces to move to opt-in royalty models.

Cointelegraph contacted Meta for clarification on its commission and royalties structure but did not immediately receive a response.