Mastercard wants to bring card payments on NFT marketplaces

What

Mastercard has said in a press release that it has been working over the last year to bring card payments to NFT marketplaces.

Why

Currently, NFT marketplaces, such as OpenSea require users to make their purchases through crypto transactions, which can prove expensive when considering gas and transfer fees. If users could pay directly with their Mastercard, this could save the hassle of buying crypto on an exchange and then sending it onwards to third-party wallets such as MetaMask. In theory, this would save NFT buyers from paying network fees to move crypto between wallets.

What next

By removing the need to use crypto for NFT purchases, Mastercard may be able to lower the barrier to entry for non-crypto natives — allowing for easier onboarding of new entrants to the NFT market.

The story

Mastercard has been working with a number of crypto and Web3 firms to work on greater payment integration, such as Immutable X, Candy Digital, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring, Nifty Gateway and MoonPay.

A survey conducted by the payment processor showed that 45% of respondents said they had or would consider buying an NFT. This survey, combined with NFT sales totalling $25 billion in 2021, shows that the tech is a trend Mastercard expects to continue growing.

In addition, Mastercard outlined how using it would provide NFT buyers with protections that card users’ enjoy when making fiat purchases. This could help to protect buyers from some of the fraudulent activity that has been seen in the space, such as phishing scams and digital wallet exploits.

Mastercard has shown increased interest in crypto and Web3 integration lately. A Mastercard executive said on a panel last month that crypto tech needs to be “invisible” to make it easier for new entrants. 

To learn more about crypto payments, take a look at our learning resources.

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