- Mastercard to widen access to NFTs
- Mastercard announces crypto partners for NFT payments service
Widening its access to the NFT market, payments giant Mastercard announced new crypto partners to allow people to use their cards for purchases of non-fungible tokens.
Raj Dhamodaran, executive vice president at Mastercard, said the company is working to enable NFT commerce with Immutable X, Candy Digital, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring, Nifty Gateway, and Web3 infrastructure provider MoonPay.
Raj Dhamodaran, executive vice president at MastercardWe’re working with these companies to allow people to use their Mastercard cards for NFTs purchases, whether that’s on one of these companies’ marketplaces or using their crypto services. With 2.9 billion Mastercard cards worldwide, this change could have a big impact on the NFT ecosystem.
“Buy the NFTs you want on the marketplace of your choice. No need to buy crypto first,” he added.
Currently, buying an NFT from marketplaces like OpenSea involves loading a crypto wallet with funds and paying in tokens like ETH and SOL.
45% people across 40 countries have purchased NFTs
Dhamodaran said a Mastercard survey of more than 35,000 people in 40 countries found that 45% had purchased an NFT or would consider doing so, and roughly half sought more flexibility — being able to pay with crypto for everyday purchases or using a credit or debit card to buy an NFT.
“Overall, these integrations are designed to make crypto more accessible and help the NFT ecosystem keep growing, innovating, and bringing in more fans,” he said.
Mastercard has already been working with Coinbase on its recently-launched NFT platform to support cash payments. Visa is also looking closely looking at the NFT market after buying a CryptoPunk late last year. Also, since January, MoonPay has also been offering an NFT payments service for its partners.
