Meta’s entry into NFTs may help revive the industry

September 5, 2022

By Sharan Kaur Phillora

Meta, one of the world’s largest social media platforms, has announced that it would allow creators to upload NFTs on its platform. Although the company had previously allowed creators to sell their own NFTs through its marketplace, it was not until now that they were able to share them publicly.

Here’s what we know: 

The NFT market, which was once booming, has been experiencing a decline in recent times. As per the latest reports, the Indian NFT marketplace WazirX saw a massive drop in its trade volume in the last month.

WazirX is an online trading platform for collectible digital assets and is backed by venture capital firm Matrix Partners India. It allows users to buy and sell collectibles like CryptoKitties, Magic: The Gathering cards, and other unique items.

In March this year, WazirX reported that its monthly trade volume dropped to $1 million, according to crypto research firm Chainalysis. Though creators still can’t sell or mint NFTs on social media at the moment, putting them out as profile pictures or posts on two of the world’s largest social networks could provide a huge push to the community, said industry experts.

“It will be good for creators. Facebook and Instagram have huge user bases, which will be good for NFT creators and get them a lot of traction. It will enable them to build communities which are essential for the underlying value of NFTs,” said Sidharth Sogani, founder and chief executive of Crebaco, a crypto analysis firm.

Kameshwaran Elangovan, co-founder and chief operating officer at GuardianLink, an NFT service provider, said the convergence of social media and NFTs represents the “finest confluence between the crowd-power of Web 2.0 and the transparency of Web3.”

“It is important for any new technology and its manifestations to mark a presence in a place where people hang around. And right now, there is no better place than social media,” he added.

Facebook’s Monthly Active Users (MAU) crossed nearly 2.93 billion as of June 2022, up from 1.862 billion in December 2019. In terms of daily active users (DAUs), Facebook reached 1.9 billion in May 2020, up from 1.6 billion in December 2019.

About the author

Sharan Kaur Phillora’s thirst for knowledge has led her to study many different subjects, including NFTs and Blockchain technology – two emerging technologies that will change how we interact with each other in the future. When she isn’t exploring a new idea or concept, she enjoys reading literary masterpieces.