Meta pulling the plug on NFTs across Instagram and Facebook

The short-lived NFT features were first launched in May 2022, but Meta’s financial technology lead said it’s “winding down” the tools to focus elsewhere.

Big Tech firm Meta is scrapping its nonfungible token (NFT) feature across its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram just under a year after it launched.

Stephane Kasriel, Meta’s head of commerce and financial technologies, tweeted the news on Mar. 13, saying Meta is “winding down” its NFT support as it wishes to “focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses.”

Some product news: across the company, we’re looking closely at what we prioritize to increase our focus. We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses. [1/5]

— Stephane Kasriel (@skasriel) March 13, 2023

Kasriel added the firm is still prioritizing ways for users to “connect with their fans and monetize” and will focus on such as building payment rails on its platform and through its messaging apps and monetizing Reels — the company’s short form video tool.

The product was relatively short-lived as testing began in May 2022 with select United States-based creators on Instagram before it expanded to Facebook that June. It expanded again in July as Instagram made NFT tools available to over 100 countries.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.