To become a Vogue Business Member and receive the Technology Edit newsletter, click here.
Instagram is opening up its platform to NFTs, paving the way for mainstream visibility and moving closer toward the promise of digital fashion wearables.
After testing it in May, Instagram’s Digital Collectibles feature, which allows people to share NFTs on their feeds, will be rolled out to people in more than 100 countries, the Meta-owned company said on Thursday. People will be able to share images of their NFTs by connecting their crypto wallets and will be able to tag creators and owners. Crypto wallets Coinbase and Dapper will now be supported, in addition to MetaMask, Rainbow and Trust Wallet.
The feature will bring NFTs to a massive audience: Instagram reports an estimated 2 billion monthly active users and is well within the wheelhouse of fashion and beauty brands. These industries have begun experimenting with NFTs, whose community currently lives primarily on Twitter and Discord — a brand selling NFTs will get more reach and awareness on Instagram. Gucci, for example, has about 49 million followers on Instagram, but just over 56,000 on its Gucci Vault Discord server.
For creators and brands, more visibility means more education and potential monetisation opportunities, says photographer Sophia Wilson, who participated in the trial, in part because of the instant increase in visibility and engagement.
“The NFT community has become a very white and male-dominated space, which we hate to see happen to another art space,” says Wilson. “If you’re just scrolling on Instagram and you see an NFT, suddenly it looks a lot less daunting, and you’re able to grasp the concept of what it is.”
Only about a quarter of US adults are familiar with NFTs, up 11 per cent from a year ago, according to Insider Intelligence, indicating the potential for increased interest in the technology.
