Yesterday Mastercard announced it’s working with seven major non-fungible token (NFT) platforms and enablers.
These include:
- Immutable X, the layer 2 solution for NFTs
- sports NFT platform Candy Digital
- web3 metaverse The Sandbox
- marketplaces Mintable, Nifty Gateway and Spring
- and payment solution MoonPay.
It already has a deal with Coinbase for its new NFT marketplace that launched last month.
Of course, the ultimate aim is to enable people to pay for NFTs using their Mastercard without buying crypto.
Mastercard was one of the earlier brands to launch an NFT offering. Last year it ran a competition to win a single NFT of José Mourinho, the famous soccer coach who is a Mastercard ambassador.
In February, Mastercard announced it was extending its consulting practice to include crypto and digital currencies as well as other technologies. It launched a test CBDC platform in September 2020, a model several others are now offering. And it acquired blockchain analytics firm Ciphertrace which provides intelligence on blockchain wallets and cryptocurrency firms in the fight against money laundering.
Visa and Mastercard are vying to partner and engage in the space. Visa went as far as buying a CryptoPunk NFT last August for $150,000. At the time, it looked like it overpaid but shortly afterward, NFT prices rose significantly. However, since the market has now cooled, currently an average CryptoPunk goes for around $80,000. In March, Visa launched a program to help creators navigate NFTs.
