Instagram to soon let creators make NFTs and sell them to fans

By Anita George November 2, 2022

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on your favorite social media platforms are apparently here to stay. At least that seems to be the case for one Meta-owned platform.

On Wednesday, as part of its Creator Week event, Meta announced that Instagram will soon let creators make and sell their own NFTs on the app itself. The new ability was described as another way for fans to support their favorite creators.

A series of four mobile screenshots showing the selling of NFTs on Instagram. — Meta/Instagram

Essentially, the new ability is expected to be an “end-to-end toolkit” that allows creators to create, showcase, and sell their own NFTs on Instagram. Once created, fans would then be able to purchase these NFTs directly in the app.

The ability to make and sell what Meta refers to as “digital collectibles” on Instagram, is not widely available yet. According to the announcement, it is still in testing “with a small group of creators in the U.S. first” with the aim to expand to other countries soon.

Meta also announced a number of other new, creator-focused features for Instagram and Facebook, including:

Subscriptions will be expanded to “all eligible creators in the U.S.” This means that fans will be able to purchase subscriptions to exclusive content (and other perks) from their favorite creators.
Creators will have an additional way to earn money on Instagram Reels: Instagram is currently testing the ability to let followers send creators gifts on Reels “by purchasing Stars within Instagram.”
Meta is also launching a “Professional Mode” profile setting that lets Facebook users become creators (and have access to creator tools and monetization) via their personal Facebook profile.

These features are the latest in Instagram’s attempts to court creators back to its platform as it rallies against the wild popularity of TikTok.

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