Stephanie Douse 
Instagram might be having a full-blown rollout of NFT support this week, as the Meta company aims to boost more interest in NFTs.
According to reports over the weekend, Instagram is planning to integrate NFTs as soon as this week.
The move comes just a few months after it was reported that Instagram’s owner, Meta, was testing NFT support for the platform. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri hinted last year that the company was actively investigating the space.
The move could spark renewed interest in non-fungible tokens. However, it follows a nearly 30% drop in NFT volumes over the previous week.
Instagram’s Move Might Encourage More Interest In NFT
According to reports, the social media giant intends to integrate NFTs from Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and Flow. By far the most important blockchains for NFTs are Ethereum and Solana, with the former housing some of the most valuable collections.
Instagram will also add support for cryptocurrency wallets such as MetaMask. The launch will initially be tested through a pilot program.
Given that Instagram has over 1 billion users, the launch could cause interest in NFTs to skyrocket to 2021 highs. Because of the popularity of sports and historical tokens, NFTs in general are far more appealing to non-Web3 users.
The move may also pose serious competition to established NFT platforms such as OpenSea and Looksrare, both of which are dwarfed in terms of the user base by Instagram.
Instagram did not immediately respond to a comment request.
However, Instagram’s launch would coincide with a significant drop in interest in NFTs. According to the NFT data aggregator, NFT Go, daily volumes in the space have been consistently declining since late April.
The ongoing weakness in the crypto market, which has seen nearly $500 billion in market capitalization erased in recent weeks, is a major reason for this. Given that cryptocurrencies account for the majority of trading, this could be one of the reasons.
However, other factors may also point to a decline in interest in NFTs. For example, CoinBase’s recent launch of its NFT platform barely surpassed 1000 users.