Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said NFTs are coming to Instagram “over the next several months,” as the company formerly known as Facebook continues its push into metaverse-like products, including on its legacy platforms.

On Tuesday, Zuckerberg beamed into SXSW in Austin, the tech, media, film and music festival, to talk by video with Daymond John, CEO of The Shark Group and founder of FUBU. Zuckerberg announced that Instagram would be getting into NFTs, one of the first public acknowledgments that Meta was gearing up to enter the non-fungible token arena.

Zuckerberg stuck with the theme of much of SXSW, discussing the potential of the metaverse and Web3 technology. And he spoke about NFTs, like a lot of SXSW attendees have, as vehicles for commerce in the metaverse, especially in fashion. At SXSW, there have been discussions about how fashion intersects with NFTs, with clothing that can exist in the real world and adorn digital avatars online. Many fashion brands have dabbled in NFTs, from Gucci to Nike.

'Technical things to work out'

“I would hope that the clothing that your avatar is wearing in the metaverse, you know,” Zuckerberg said, “can be basically minted as an NFT. You can take it between different places.”

The idea is that clothing in the metaverse, for digital avatars, could travel from one VR space to another, but that requires interoperability between the companies that are building metaverse properties. There are “technical things to work out,” Zuckerberg said.

NFTs have been a hot area of exploration for tech platforms, brands and ad agencies, and they have been a focus for attendees at SXSW. Twitter has already integrated with NFTs by allowing people to link their NFT wallets to their profiles. Snapchat has worked with popular NFT-based brands, especially here at SXSW, including Doodles and Fluf World, which were both somewhat of breakout successes at SXSW.

Zuckerberg suggested that people would be able to mint NFTs through Instagram but did not have all the details to share. Over the next several months, he said, Instagram would introduce the “ability to bring some of your NFTs” to the platform, and “hopefully over time be able to mint things within that environment.”

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Zuckerberg was a late entry at SXSW, appearing on the agenda just this week, and only talking by video to a full house at the Austin Convention Center. Zuckerberg yet again explained Meta’s goals to become a “metaverse” company after rebranding to its new name last year.

Meta has been developing its metaverse products across a number of fronts, including in virtual reality through Quest devices. Zuckerberg also talked about augmented reality, which is different than VR because it blends the real world with the internet. Meta is producing AR glasses, like Snapchat has been doing. There is a plan for a thin style of eyewear that superimposes a digital layer onto the world, like generating holograms in front of people’s eyes.

“What we’re going to see is the devices for this, you know, VR devices, AR devices,” Zuckerberg said, “and also the ability to jump into the metaverse from some of the 2D platforms … Instagram and Facebook.”

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