Meta is shuttering its non-fungible token (NFT) sales feature on Facebook and Instagram, its head of commerce and financial technologies, Stephane Kasriel, said on Twitter yesterday (March 13). The company is also laying off 10,000 staff members, 12 percent of its workforce, and canceling other “lower priority projects”, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees today.
Meta previously cut 11,000 workers, its biggest layoff in company history, in November. With the closure of its NFT sales, Meta intends to “focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses,” Kasriel said in the statement.
While Meta seems to be pulling back on some of its more ambitions projects, the metaverse isn’t one of them. Last year, the company lost $13.7 billion on Reality Labs, its metaverse division, an increase from $10.2 billion the year prior. It expects further losses this year. NFTs and cryptocurrencies are intertwined with metaverse technology, and it’s unclear how shuttering the NFT program aligns…
