Payment systems giant Mastercard is taking a significant step today in its adoption of the metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The company said it is working with industry giants to enable its 2.9 billion global customers to purchase NFTs directly via credit card.
Mastercard to enable direct purchase of NFTs
While it has been multiplying announcements in favor of cryptocurrency adoption, especially since last year, the giant Mastercard is now taking an important step and announcing that it is working to be able to make the purchase of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) accessible to its 2.9 billion customers worldwide.
Via an official statement, the payment company said it wants to make the payment process for purchasing an NFT “simpler and more secure,” and wants to implement credit card payment solutions for purchases of this type of asset.
In order to achieve this, Mastercard has announced extensive partnerships with the largest companies in the industry, such as Immutable X, Candy Digital, Mintable, Spring, Nifty Gateway and The Sandbox (SAND).
A move into Web 3.0 is also planned, and Mastercard has announced that it is working with the payment platform Moonpay, which specializes in cryptocurrency transactions.
The executive vice president of Mastercard’s dedicated cryptocurrency arm, Raj Dhamodharan, clearly mentioned the company’s focus on making a mark in Web 3.0:
“With the help of these companies, Mastercard’s growing adoption of Web 3.0 adds to our existing work of bringing our payment network to Coinbase’s new NFT marketplace, which was opened to all its users in May. […] These integrations are designed to make crypto more accessible and help the NFT ecosystem continue to grow, innovate and attract new fans.”
Where previously, purchasing an NFT on a platform like OpenSea required reloading one’s digital wallet, Mastercard wants its customers to be able to directly pay for transactions via credit card, “without the need to purchase cryptocurrencies first.”
NFTs on the rise
Mastercard had already shown its interest in NFTs and the metaverse last April. Indeed, the internationally renowned company had then filed more than a dozen trademark applications related to the metaverse, cryptocurrencies and NFTs ecosystem with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
A strategy that makes perfect sense: in July 2021, the traded volume of NFTs was just shy of $1 billion. Today, this volume exceeds $60 billion.
According to a survey of more than 35,000 people in 40 countries around the world conducted by Mastercard itself, 45% of respondents said they had already purchased an NFT or were planning to do so, and half of them wanted the purchase process to be simplified.
Finally, let’s add that purchasing an NFT through Mastercard’s payment infrastructure provides the security usually induced for everyday transactions, an additional guarantee of adoption.
