Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms in the world, with around 2 billion monthly active users. Early last year, its parent company, Meta Platforms, began testing non-fungible token (NFT) sharing, allowing select users to connect to their digital wallets and display the NFTs they created or purchased.

The feature gained traction as NFT creators and collectors saw future opportunities to introduce their digital assets to a broader audience of curious Web3 consumers. Some even suggested that the planned support of Instagram could help NFTs finally reach mainstream adoption due to their expansive reach.

Encouraged by the positive feedback and eager to embrace the creator economy, Instagram began slowly expanding its digital collectibles feature, allowing select digital artists to begin minting and selling NFTs directly on the platform.

The addition of NFT trading for a platform like Instagram makes sense considering its huge global audience. The feature exposes users to Web3 concepts, many for the first time, in a way that doesn’t add friction to Instagram’s core business model. Instagram users also pay for NFTs in fiat currency, which removes an otherwise challenging on-ramp for newcomers to Web3.

But attracting a native Web3 audience poses more challenges. Would experienced NFT collectors be interested in buying assets sold on a highly centralized Web2 platform? In addition, Instagram in-app purchases are subject to steep fees of 15-30% from Apple and Google, resulting in less profit for sellers.

Despite this, early NFT sales on the platform have been a success, with sold out collections quickly. Instagram’s strategy of recruiting well-known NFT artists to promote the new feature has worked in two ways: it attracted NFT collectors and helped bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 users.

Get Web3 builders

While blockchain natives may have been skeptical of Instagram’s foray into Web3, the platform’s partnership with well-known NFT artists has helped instill confidence in communities. Drifter Shoots (aka Isaac Wright), Refik Anadol, Amber Vittoria, Dave Krugman, and Micah Johnson have all launched NFT via Instagram over the past few months, and it’s sold out every time.

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“Digital collectibles make a lot of sense when you consider where a lot of us do our social signage,” Krugman wrote in a post on Instagram teasing his first NFT release back in November.

Other popular NFT artists such as Maliha Abidi and Bobby Hundreds have used the platform to showcase their NFT creations, praising the feature as an accessible way to reach potential buyers.

“We’re thrilled to announce the feature, not only because it brings the NFT conversation to the platform, but because it gives us a chance to re-educate the bright future we see ahead for NFT and Web3,” Adam Bomb Squad, Bobby’s NFT Collection Hundreds, wrote in a post showcasing one of his signature characters.

There is often an uneasy relationship when traditional Web2 companies look to use a Web3 toolset. His efforts to launch NFTs or buy land in the metaverse are sometimes considered “PR stunts” that please Web3 enthusiasts and are not always well received.

A plan for mass adoption

With so much hype surrounding an image-first, blockchain-embracing social network, Instagram has made sure to present digital collectibles in ways that feel organic to both its general audience and Web3 natives. For example, Instagram users can share NFTs to their feed just like they would any other image, but there’s also a dedicated tab for digital collectibles to create a sense of integration and separation of content.

Reflecting this, the platform chose the Polygon blockchain to initially launch its Digital Collectibles feature, a move that aligns with the Layer 2 blockchain company’s stated goal of becoming a “funnel” for Web2 brands that looking to jump to Web3.

“We’ve built this big funnel for partners to come in and make Polygon onboarding really smooth,” Polygon CEO Ryan Wyatt told CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” last month.

Polygon’s recent partnerships with Nike, Reddit, and Starbucks have been wildly successful. His holistic approach to brand integrations and his focus on making the process easy for Web2 businesses has paid off. According to data from blockchain analytics platform Nansen, first-time and returning buyers per day on Polygon’s NFT ecosystem reached new all-time highs last month.

Polygon has also made a profit with native Web3 markup, albeit at a cost. One of Solana’s major NFT projects, Y00ts, recently moved to Polygon, and its parent company, DeLabs, received a $3 million non-equity grant from Polygon to make it happen.

Nansen’s data suggests that Polygon sees nearly triple the number of daily transactions compared to Ethereum, and saw 823,000 unique daily active wallet addresses over the past day. However, Polygon’s overall NFT trading volume in the secondary market, where experienced NFT collectors go to trade their digital collectibles for profit, pales in comparison to Ethereum NFTs, reflecting the chain’s overall approach of low cost blocks in the incorporation of new collectors instead of promoting projects for Native web3.

Some Polygon-based projects have also chosen to use the word “digital collectibles” instead of “NFT” in their branding, a move that steers them away from the controversies plaguing the crypto market. The term is considered more friendly to newcomers unfamiliar with crypto jargon.

So far, Instagram’s methodical entry into Web3 has shown promise for other Web2 brands looking to make the leap. It highlights how NFTs and other crypto assets can be used to expand trading offerings and provide an accessible entry point for curious Web3 consumers without isolating the Web3 natives who have supported the NFT market all along.