June 13, 2022
By Sharan Kaur Phillora
NFT transactions took another step into the mainstream as payments giant Mastercard (MA) announced that its cardholders can now buy non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on various marketplaces without needing to first purchase cryptocurrency.
Here’s what we know:
Mastercard is working with NFT scaling platform Immutable X, Candy Digital, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring, Nifty Gateway and Web 3 infrastructure provider MoonPay on the new capabilities, according to the press release.
“We’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,” Raj Dhamodaran, executive vice president at Mastercard, wrote in a blog. “With 2.9 billion Mastercard cards worldwide, this change could have a big impact on the NFT ecosystem,” he added.
Mastercard recently surveyed a group of over 35,000 people in 40 countries and found that 45% had purchased an NFT or would consider buying one, the company said. In addition, Mastercard found that about half of those surveyed sought more flexibility and wanted to be able to pay with crypto for everyday purchases, or use a credit or debit card to buy an NFT.
The payments firm also said it would focus on customer safety and protecting user data throughout the process of purchasing an NFT. Also, the company stated that payments made with debit and credit cards on these online marketplaces will enjoy the “full suite of capabilities” that the company gives to payments realized in retail stores, protecting consumers in case of fraud.
Recently, Mastercard also partnered with Edge to launch a card that does not collect KYC information from its users.
About the author
Sharan Kaur Phillora’s thirst for knowledge has led her to study many different subjects, including NFTs and Blockchain technology – two emerging technologies that will change how we interact with each other in the future. When she isn’t exploring a new idea or concept, she enjoys reading literary masterpieces.
