Mastercard has announced that it will launch a number of non-fungible tokens (NFT) Marketplace to “bring your payment network to web3”, making it possible to purchase NFTs with your debit and credit cards.
According to a blog post, NFT marketplaces partnered with Mastercard include ImmutableX, Candy Digital, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring and Nifty Gateway as well as Web3 infrastructure provider Moonpay. The integration will enable users to purchase NFTs in an “easy and secure” way, using their cards instead of crypto to complete transactions.
Combined, these marketplaces generated “more than $25 billion in sales in 2021 — from art to games to video games to collectibles to Metaverse platforms,” according to Mastercard.
Raj Dhamodharan, Executive Vice President, Digital Asset Blockchain Products & Digital Asset, said, “We are working with these companies to enable people to make NFT purchases using their MasterCard cards, whether on these companies’ NFT marketplaces or their crypto services. are using.” Partnership in MasterCard.
According to Dhamodharan, with 2.9 billion MasterCard cards issued worldwide, “this change could have a major impact on the NFT ecosystem.”
More flexibility for users
Mastercard also argued that by adding support for direct NFT purchases, the company will “give exactly what people want.”
The financial services provider cited its recent survey of more than 35,000 people in 40 countries, which found that 45% of respondents had already purchased NFTs or would consider doing so.
The study also found that almost 50% spoke in favor of greater flexibility in payment options, i.e. being able to use cryptocurrencies for everyday purchases or use their credit or debit cards to purchase NFTs. Its findings come as a recent Deloitte survey showed that more than 85% of businesses have a high or very high priority for enabling cryptocurrency payments.
This is not the first time that Mastercard has partnered with the NFT Marketplace; Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with Coinbase aimed at simplifying the buying process on the Coinbase NFT site, which went live in May.
In February, Mastercard also announced the addition of payments-focused consulting services for banks and merchants, covering everything from cryptocurrencies and NFTs to crypto cards and loyalty programs.
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