Polygon surges 10% following Instagram integration announcement

Meta has announced an end-to-end toolkit allowing Instagram users to mint NFTs on the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain and sell them on social media.

The move has made MATIC one of the best-performing digital assets in the last 24 hours, rising by over 10% to $0.95.

Meta turning Instagram into an NFT marketplace

According to the Nov. 2 announcement, selected creators in the United States would be able to make their digital collectibles which can be sold both on and off Instagram.

Source: Meta

The platform continued that its users could also now showcase video NFTs, and the metadata of certain collections, which include their descriptions and names, would be provided by OpenSea.

Meanwhile, Meta stated that it was extending its support to the Solana (SOL) blockchain and the popular Phantom Wallet. The Mark Zuckerberg-led company already supports Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow blockchains.

1/ @Instagram & @Facebook have integrated support for Solana NFTs! 🙌

In the Instagram app, go to Settings, click Digital Collectibles & connect your Phantom wallet. The integration is rolling out to all users over the coming days, get ready to showcase your favorite NFTs! pic.twitter.com/H91C9khTmD

— Solana (@solana) November 2, 2022

Speaking on the development, Meta’s head of commerce and financial technology, Stephane Kasriel, said:

“Meta won’t charge fees to create or sell digital collectibles until 2024 (though in-app purchases are still subject to app store fees), and at launch we’ll be covering blockchain fees (known as “gas fees”) for buyers.”

Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal also hailed the move, saying it “represents a remarkable milestone in the evolution of Instagram’s existing NFT functionality and a natural next step to bring Web3 to the mainstream.”

Polygon is onboarding web2 companies into web3

The Ethereum (ETH) Layer-2 network is actively onboarding web2 companies into the blockchain industry. In the last 24 hours, JPMorgan used Polygon’s blockchain to carry out its first DeFi transaction involving the tokenized Singapore Dollar (TSD) and Japanese Yen.

Recently, the layer2 network powered Reddit’s NFT collectible avatars collection, onboarding over 3 million users to the space. The network was also used by other global companies like Stripe, Robinhood, Liverpool Football Club, Dolce & Gabbana, Adidas, etc.

All of this resulted in a positive third-quarter performance for the blockchain network. Polygon’s new addresses increased by 180% quarter over quarter. Active addresses on the network also hit an all-time high of 6 million, while its total transactions during the third quarter passed 2 billion.

According to CryptoSlate data, MATIC is up over 19% in the last 30 days.