Meta pulling the plug on NFTs across Instagram and Facebook

The short-lived NFT features were first launched in May 2022, but Meta's financial technology lead said it's "winding down" the tools to focus elsewhere.

Big Tech firm Meta is scrapping its nonfungible token (NFT) features across its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram around 10 months after they first launched.

Stephane Kasriel, Meta's head of commerce and financial technologies, tweeted the news on Mar. 13, saying Meta is "winding down" its NFT support as it wishes to "focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses."

Kasriel added the firm is still prioritizing ways for users to "connect with their fans and monetize" and will focus on tools such as building payment rails on its platform and through its messaging apps along with monetizing Reels — short-form videos that feature on Facebook and Instagram.

In particular, Kasriel mentioned a focus on Meta Pay, the firm's payment platform which in the future could support cryptocurrency according to trademark filings in May 2022.

NFTs on the platforms were relatively short-lived as testing began in May 2022 with select creators on Instagram before expanding to Facebook in June.

The NFT features expanded again in August 2022 as Instagram made NFT tools available to over 100 countries. In November last year, it launched an “end-to-end toolkit” for minting and trading NFTs within Instagram.

The announcement received scathing criticism from the crypto community, NFT artist Dave Krugman tweeted it was "a short-sighted move" and that Meta "quit before [it] even started."

"The trust earned over the past year is now squandered," Krugman added.

Podcaster Marc Colcer said the move "seems short-sighted for a company that’s supposed to be thinking long term" and asked for transparency on Meta's decision to scrap NFT support.

Allen Hena, the cofounder of Web3 firm Earth Labs, was more severe with his feedback and said Meta scrapped the idea as it "realized that using public crypto networks means you can't exploit creators."

Meta's scrapping of its NFT tools aligns with other cost cutting measures across the company as it directs focus to its expensive Metaverse ambitions.

Last year alone its metaverse-building division Reality Labs recorded its largest ever yearly losses at $13.7 billion and Meta undertook the first mass layoff in the company’s history, cutting 13% of its workforce in November last year, shedding 11,000 staff.