Meta unveils NFT minting and trading feature on Instagram

Meta to launch NFT minting and trading feature on Instagram

Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta this week officially announced that it is testing and selling Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on Instagram. The NFTs will be minted on Polygon.

Initially, only select users in the US will be able to use the NFTs, but the company intends to expand its offering to other countries in the near future.

How it’ll work:

Creators will soon be able to make their own digital collectibles on Instagram and sell them to fans, both on and off Instagram. They’ll have an end-to-end toolkit—from creation and showcasing, to selling, as per the company.

Coinbase's transaction revenue declines 44% in Q3 CY22

Crypto exchange Coinbase's third-quarter (Q3 CY22) earnings report indicated a huge drop in its transaction revenue and also suggested that the firm has managed to cut its losses by 50%.

In the shareholder's letter, the firm stated that the decline in revenue was due to the larger macroeconomic effect as the market witnessed a decline in daily crypto market cap, with volatility declining to 30%.

Key findings:

The letter also disclosed that Coinbase saw transaction revenue of $366 million, representing a 44% decline from its second-quarter earnings.

The monthly transacting users dropped to 8.5 million—down from 9 million in the prior quarter but beating the estimates of 7.8 million.

Bharat Web3 Association formed

Founders of Hike, Coinbase, CoinSwitch Kuber, Polygon, Coinbase, Zebpay, WazirX, ANQ Finance, Biconomy, Liminal, Tax Nodes this week came forward to launch Indian web3 advocacy body Bharat Web3 Association (BWA), to support the growth of India’s Web3 ecosystem. 

The members of the association believe India could emerge as a global leader in the web3 space, which is also in line with the government's 'Make-In-India' initiative. 

What the association will do:

To achieve the goal, the association will look into facilitating conversations among stakeholders and will set standardised principles in the web3 industry.

It will also look at creating awareness about the web3 sector, promote innovation in the sector, nurture the Indian talent pool, and also collaborate with the government in the upcoming G20 discussions to develop a collaborative regulatory framework for digital assets.

Crypto regulation in key focus at India’s G20 presidency

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman this week said framing regulation for crypto assets would be one of the key priority areas for discussion for India during its upcoming G20 presidency. 

The finance minister highlighted that crypto assets could be used for funding drugs or terror, or gaming the system, and regulation was the only way to tackle this. 

How crypto regulation can work:

Sitharaman also stressed on the need for global regulation, stating that "regulation cannot be successful if any one country does it. We have not come out with any plans as yet. So we need to have the members of G20 come on board to see what best needs to be done".

The minister also said various international bodies are working on regulations for crypto assets and those have to be brought to the table for a meaningful discussion at the G20.

Coinbase CPO Surojit Chatterjee steps down

Crypto exchange Coinbase's Chief Product Officer Surojit Chatterjee has stepped down from the post as the firm restructures its product, engineering, and design teams. 

Surojit Chatterjee took to Twitter to confirm the announcement, saying: "Although this is certainly the end of a chapter, I’m looking forward to continuing to help Coinbase grow by serving as an adviser to the company’s Co-founder and CEO, Brian Armstrong."

More about Surojit:

Surojit Chatterjee joined Coinbase Global as chief product manager in February 2020. 

Prior to this, Surojit worked for Google and Flipkart. He had worked on mobile advertising and was responsible for the launch of Google Shopping in India.