Meta extends access to Facebook and Instagram’s NFT feature to everyone

Meta announced on Thursday that it enables anyone in the US to share “digital collectibles” (read: NFTs under a new name that social media execs think is more appealing) on ​​Facebook and Instagram. Sharing on the latter platform is also available in over 100 other countries. The feature, which was initially limited to select users, works by having you link your crypto wallet to your profile, after which you can create a post featuring NFTs in that wallet. According to a blog post from Meta, sharing a digital collectible results in “automatic tagging of the creator and collector.”

Going to Settings > Digital Collectibles in the Instagram app shows that there are currently five supported wallets if you’re trying to use the feature on your phone, including the Coinbase wallet, MetaMask and Dapper. The app says you can link different wallets if you’re using the web version of Instagram on a desktop computer, but when I tried it out, clicking the Digital Collectibles button would just take me back to my feed on the Instagram home page.

However, I don’t suspect many people will be concerned with the details of sharing NFTs on Instagram or Facebook, and I’d wager that the feature will be similar to that U2 album that invaded the iPhone years ago: something you see while dig in and say “oh yeah that.” Like Bloomberg pointed out earlier this week, NFT trading has fallen sharply this year compared to its peak this summer. Overall, both the number and value of NFT sales are significantly lower this year than in 2021, according to data from NonFungible.com.

This is all despite attempts to try and get the general public interested in digital tokens. Last month, when Meta began expanding access to the feature, Eminem and Snoop Dogg performed a Bored Ape Yacht Club-themed performance at MTV’s VMAs. Since then, the average sale price, market capitalization, number of sales, and number of people trading NFTs in this collection have fallen by double-digit percentages. according to DappRadar data.