Facebook, Instagram Abruptly Pull The Plug On NFTs, Leaving Artists Disappointed: 'Giving Up Before They've…Even Begun'

Meta Platforms Inc.’s META announcement that it is "winding down" its work with non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, on Facebook and Instagram has left many NFT collectors and artists feeling disappointed and frustrated.

What Happened: The decision means Meta will be discontinuing its tests of minting and selling NFTs on Instagram, as well as the ability to share NFTs on both Instagram and Facebook in the upcoming weeks.

“Across the company, we’re looking closely at what we prioritize to increase our focus,” Meta commerce and fintech lead Stephane Kasriel said in a Twitter thread on Monday. “We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses.” Instead, the company is focusing on “areas where we can make impact at scale,” like messaging and monetization on Reels and on improving Meta Pay.

Why It's Important: Debbie Soon, co-founder of The HUG, a platform for NFT artists, took to Twitter to voice her disappointment with Instagram's sidelining of NFTs. "It just feels like they're giving up before they’ve really even begun," she said. “If big companies aren’t gonna pave the way for mainstream adoption, it’s up to us, the community that’s always been here, to do so.”

NFT artist Dave Krugman also expressed disappointment and called it a “short-sighted move,” noting that it has the potential to help creators engage their audiences and push back against the damaging effects of attention-based advertising economies. Krugman called it a “real shame” that all the hard work of great people is being undone.

The NFT integration appears to be one of the casualties of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's mission to make 2023 the "year of efficiency," joining the Reels Play bonus program that was recently shut down. This follows the shutdown of the Meta-backed cryptocurrency Diem and Meta's Novi digital wallet last year.

Another NFT enthusiast who goes by the username ‘straybits.eth’ on Twitter questioned Meta's decision to abandon the metaverse.

So Meta is abandoning the metaverse already? You haven't even built anything. looking to focus on *other ways* to support creators, people, and businesses is what @blockbuster did. Worked out for @netflix, and those of us who have enjoyed the end result of having their enemies… https://t.co/12AbcvNThS
— straybits.eth ⌐◨-◨ (@straybits1) March 13, 2023

Some users even went as far as saying that the only reason they got into NFTs was because they could buy it on Instagram.

idk about y’all but I only got into NFTs is because I could buy them on Instagram

Not really sure there is a reason for me to be here anymore, I’m out

good luck everybody
— 2070 (@Punk_2070) March 14, 2023

NFTs are digital assets that can be minted on several blockchains including Ethereum ETH/USD, Polygon MATIC/USD and now even on Bitcoin BTC/USD called Ordinals.

It is worth noting that Polygon had scored a deal with Instagram to sell and mint NFTs on the platform.

Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $24,518, up 9.25%. ETH at $1,683, up 4.53% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro.