A new feature on Instagram will allow users to mint and trade NFTs

Key points:

• Meta said developers will have an “end-to-end toolkit” to create, showcase and sell NFTs within the platform, and has selected Polygon Blockchain as the first partner for the feature.
• In addition to the currently supported blockchain suites including Ethereum, Flow and Polygon, Meta also announced support for the Solana blockchain and its popular Phantom wallet.
• Meta's head of business and fintech, Stephane Kasriel, said that Meta will not charge fees to create or sell NFTs until 2024 and that Meta will pay buyers blockchain gas fees "at launch", without explaining how much it will take to launch. 

Social media platform Instagram will launch a suite of non-fungible tokens (NFTs)-related tools that allow developers to mint, showcase and sell NFTs.

Instagram parent company Meta said at its Creators Week 2022 event on Nov. 2 that the platform will allow its creators to create "digital collectibles" and sell them "on and off Instagram."

Meta said developers will have an “end-to-end toolkit” to create, showcase and sell NFTs within the platform, and has selected Polygon Blockchain as the first partner for the feature.

It said it would allow a small group of U.S. developers to test the new feature, which would later expand to other countries, but did not provide information on when.

In addition to the currently supported blockchain suites including Ethereum, Flow and Polygon, Meta also announced support for the Solana blockchain and its popular Phantom wallet.

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

Meta's head of business and fintech, Stephane Kasriel, said that Meta will not charge fees to create or sell NFTs until 2024, and that Meta will pay buyers blockchain gas fees "at launch", without explaining how much it will take to launch. 

Kasriel said NFT transactions are still subject to “App Store fees,” referring to Apple’s 30% commission on NFT sales, which has been heavily criticized for being higher than the average 2.5% commission enforced by NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea.

This obviously does not allow buyers to buy Instagram NFTs with cryptocurrencies through the Instagram app, as both Apple and Google only support in-app purchases with fiat currencies, and both prohibit buttons, external links, or other actions that provide users with a path to avoid their commissions.

Meta has not disclosed how much commission it intends to take from NFT sales, nor what its creator licensing system will look like. It is unclear whether it will follow the recent push in the NFT market to move to an opt-in licensing model.