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You Can Now Buy NFTs using Credit Card: Mastercard
The NFT ecosystem has been clamouring to become more inclusive. One way to do so is to allow payment using fiat methods, such as credit cards. Taking a step on this front, Mastercard has announced that it will be bringing its payment network into Web 3.
Raj Dhamodharan, the Executive Vice President of the Digital Asset and Blockchain Products and Partnerships division of Mastercard, announced on the website via a press release that it would be bringing the payment networks to multiple NFT marketplaces and metaverses.
Mastercard is getting into the NFT ecosystem in more ways than one
NFTs have been able to do what cryptocurrency couldn’t – getting outsiders interested in blockchain technology. Through multiple artworks, music, videos and memes, digital artists have been able to reach out to people beyond the crypto crowd. However, because buying NFTs requires the purchase of Ethereum, Solana or other cryptocurrencies, the digital creators were losing a potential customer base.
Mastercard and VISA have taken more than a few innovative moves over the past few months to enter the NFT space in a big way.
On March 30th 2022, VISA launched the NFT creator program to help creators who want to capitalize on their digital arts through Non-Fungible Token.
It aims to “deepen the understanding” of entrepreneurs who want to learn about blockchain technology and NFT commerce.
Mastercard has also moved one step further. Reports suggest that the company has applied for over a dozen NFT patents and Metaverse related trademarks.
And from what we’ve been able to gather from Mastercard’s official application on USPTO (Unites States Patents and Trademark Office), it seems that Mastercard is preparing to enter the metaverse.
The application has words such as “processing of virtual credit card” and “virtual prepaid card”. These terms indicate that Mastercard is prepping to leverage the Metaverse for branding.
Mastercard NFT Payments deal with Coinbase
In January 2022, Mastercard partnered with Coinbase to offer users a way to buy NFTs using credit and debit cards on Coinbase’s NFT marketplace.
The marketplace finally opened its doors on May 4th 2022. And while the initial reception of Coinbase’s new venture was lukewarm, people did notice that they could buy their NFT via Mastercard debit or credit card.
It was the starting point of the credit/debit card company’s penetration into the NFT space. Now, Mastercard is ready to partner with multiple companies to enable inclusive NFT commerce, including Candy Digital, Immutable X, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring, Nifty, Gateway, and Moonpay, the Web3 Infrastructure provider.
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The Enormous NFT Market Potential with Credit Card Payments
There has been an increase in demand for those wanting to buy NFTs using credit cards. And the NFT marketplaces are more than willing to cater to them. On April 1st 2022, OpenSea rolled out the direct debit card payments on the platform via Moonpay, the same company Mastercard has partnered with.
It offered the NFT enthusiasts to directly use their cards to buy NFTs on Opensea. And since Opensea supports all the payments natively, users aren’t forwarded to outside sites to carry out payments.
Allowing debit and credit card payments have given outsiders a way to interact with the NFT ecosystem. Mastercard claims that there are 2.9 billion Mastercard users across the globe. If only a fraction among them were to buy NFTs, the adoption rate of Non-Fungible Tokens would see a massive uptick.
What About Security Concerns?
Those in the crypto ecosystem long enough know too well that there is always a trade-off between convenience and security.
“We’re also applying our full suite of capabilities to reinforce customer safety, giving similar protections to the ones they enjoy when making transactions in a store or online with a Mastercard.” –
Mastercard wrote.
They have further said that they’re implementing cybersecurity tools to enhance safety for those people who are buying NFTs using Mastercard credit or debit cards.
Are NFTS a good Investment?
The inclusion of credit cards as a payment method to buy NFTs has added fuel to this question once again.
On that matter, Shiv Madan, the CEO of Moonwalk, has said that “NFTs aren’t currencies. They can be tickets to unlock virtual events, streams, merch drops and more.”
For a long time, people saw NFTs as vanity purchases; people used to buy NFTs only for the coolness factors. As time has passed, the community has become wiser about their NFT expenditure and is now interested in backing those projects that have a real use case.
“You can appreciate the NFT art for its artistic value, sell it or hold it and it can appreciate in value,” Shiv said, enforcing that NFTs should be seen, first and foremost, as investments.
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