Twitter & Instagram - NFTs on Social Media foster Crypto Adoption

Not long ago, I scrolled through Twitter and stumbled across a profile picture: it had a hexagonal shape. As it turned out, this is the next step along the way of crypto adoption on social media. I was wondering: where are we today in terms of crypto adoption on social media? Probably everyone has heard about Crypto Twitter by today. It is a place where crypto enthusiasts meet, discuss, speculate, celebrate and cry over losses. Still, one who does not know about Bitcoin & Co. probably never touched the ground with it. Recent developments might change that. Let’s take a look at how we can use crypto on our social media accounts today.

Author: Katharina Zeuch

Crypto adoption needs more than laser eyes and people talking

If you want to read, watch, listen, and learn about crypto, social media will provide you with more content than you could consume in your whole lifetime. Out there are thousands of content creators. Just type in Bitcoin, blockchain or crypto to any social media platform and jump into the rabbit hole. Even though many are talking about crypto on social media, using this new technology it is on another card. The big social media platforms have just now started to explore the possibilities of the token economy.

Show me your Twitter pic and I can tell your crypto passion.

Already well known and not surprising anymore are laser eyes. If I see one of the many Twitter profile pictures with laser eyes, I know what to expect. This account belongs to someone who deeply believes in Bitcoin. Nothing new so far…

But the crypto adoption goes on and now also all the web3 enthusiasts out there get the possibility to show their passion on Twitter: by using NFT profile pictures! By connecting your wallet to your Twitter profile, you can now use an NFT owned by you as a profile picture. The integration enables other Twitter users to then see details about your NFT, such as its description, collection, properties and technical details. And to point out that there is an NFT hidden behind one's profile picture, it’s displayed in a hexagonal shape.¹

For example, the Coinbase_NFT account changed its profile picture to be an NFT. Figure 1 shows how Twitter displays NFT profile pictures and what information is available then. 

Figure 1 - Hexagonal shaped profile picture and information about the Coinbase logo NFT of the Coinbase_NFT Twitter account.

Instagram follows - not everyone can participate yet

Not many details have been revealed yet, but Mark Zuckerberg announced to support NFT integration on Instagram. They want to support NFTs from various blockchains: Ethereum, Polygon, Solana and Flow.² Of course, I got curious and wanted to find out more about it. Apparently, the feature is not yet available for everyone, but only a few showcase accounts can display their NFTs so far.³ Sadly, you can not explore the new features with all accounts yet. If you check one of the showcase accounts and are not capable of seeing the NFT feature, then you might not be part of the beta testing.Figure 2 - Wallets and blockchains supported by Instagram and Twitter for NFT integration.

Strengthening your fan relationships with video NFTs on Youtube

In an article on the official Youtube blog, Youtubes Chief Product Officer named NFTs as an opportunity for creators to deepen their relationship with their fans.⁴ Yet, no detailed information about how NFTs will be included in the ecosystem and how digital ownership will be regulated were disclosed. 

What we might see from here

First, to foster crypto adoption, the features described above should become available to every user of the platforms. And then I hope for many people to actually use them so that possibly everyone using these platforms comes across an NFT. That way, we can create widespread awareness for blockchain and crypto. Second, we might see more platforms enabling direct usage of cryptocurrencies. Twitter already started this journey with enabling tips in Bitcoin. But again, this feature is not yet available to every account. I expect more social media platforms to implement crypto features in the future, such as direct donations to the creators in crypto or crypto payments for subscriptions. And also we can expect that these features will become available to all users. 

About Katharina Zeuch

Katharina Zeuch is a blockchain enthusiast passionate about creating innovations to drive blockchain adoption forward. After falling into the blockchain rabbit hole in 2017, she worked in academic blockchain research and education, before she entered the crypto marketing space. After realising that many startups in this field were struggling with getting traction, she founded Luna Vision - a blockchain marketing agency focused solely on crypto startups. Get connected to Katharina via LinkedIn.

About Luna Vision

Luna Vision is a blockchain marketing agency with its roots in the blockchain ecosystem. We offer data-focused marketing to blockchain startups. With a deep understanding of blockchain technology, we can best promote your products created and running within the blockchain ecosystem and “translate” to your customers - may they be already included in the ecosystem or still be new here.