Stephane Kasriel, Meta’s new head of fintech, says the media giant has no plans of backing down from its NFT-focused strategy despite the market’s decline.
Despite the seemingly declining interest in NFTs over recent months due to the market’s sharp downturn, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta stands firm on its decision to penetrate the NFT space. That is according to Meta’s new head of fintech, Stephane Kasriel.
The public’s diminished interest in NFTs hasn’t dampened Meta from going after its big strategic bet on the technology. In fact, Facebook’s parent company still sees a massive opportunity in the NFT space and believes it could leverage virtual goods to boost its own $3 trillion value over the next ten years.
Incidentally, the monthly NFT trading volume has dropped from a record-high $17.16 billion at the beginning of the year to around $1.1 billion in June.
Meta Stays the Course Despite NFT Slump
In a recent interview, Kasriel said the company is not only staying the course but also doubling down on its plans for NFTs and the digital collectibles market.
“The opportunity [Meta] sees is for the hundreds of millions or billions of people that are using our apps today to be able to collect digital collectibles, and for the millions of creators out there that could potentially create virtual and digital goods to be able to sell them through our platforms,” he said.
He added that he thinks Meta could build its own $3 trillion economy from virtual goods over the next decade.
Meta’s Entry into the Virtual World
In October last year, Zuckerberg’s firm heralded its entry into the virtual world and digital assets market when it changed its name from Facebook to Meta. The move was to realign the brand’s image with its Metaverse ambitions.
Then, in March this year, Zuckerberg announced its plans to integrate NFTs into its photo- and video-sharing social media platform, Instagram. Around the same time, Meta filed five trademark applications for Meta Pay, its payments processor, thereby signaling a potential leap into the cryptocurrency space with a Web3 wallet and cryptocurrency exchange.
Among the familiar names in big tech, Meta has been the most aggressive thus far in its support of the new digital collectibles economy. Kasriel’s statements only reaffirmed the company’s position on the issue.
As mentioned earlier, the monthly NFT trading volume has significantly fallen from a record-high $17.16 billion in January to around $1.1 billion in June. Trading volume is a benchmark indicator for investor interest in a particular asset class, and in this case, its NFTs. For July, the trading volume is forecast to hit $460 million.
Despite Kasriel’s bullish approach, he did acknowledge the evident waning interest in the market and the reality of the “hype cycle” in crypto. He also said there were “a lot of things that are not going to survive.”
Notwithstanding the market’s cyclical nature, Kasriel stands by Meta’s doubling down with its plans to bring NFTs into the mainstream. According to Kasriel, Meta will achieve that by making NFTs inexpensive and easy to buy and trade.
However, Meta is not going about everything with its eyes closed and merely relying on its hunches. It is proceeding with caution, having learned the hard way from its failed attempt in the past to launch Diem, a global stablecoin.
“We’re trying to figure out what the regulatory landscape is so that we don’t invest in things that are ultimately going to become super-controversial or get shut down,” Kasriel said. He also added that Meta is investing with added realism regarding the promising nature of the NFT industry and technology.
Get more news updates
Get more NFT news updates at Omnimint News. For more information on Omnimint, and details on how to join our community, please follow our Twitter, or subscribe to our Telegram channel for more updates, and please feel free to submit your article.