Mastercard Joins Forces with NFT Marketplaces to Bring Card Payments to the Metaverse

Mastercard has partnered with leading non-fungible tokens marketplaces including The Sandbox, Immutable X, Candy Digital, Mintable, Spring, Nifty Gateway, and MoonPay, to enable debit/credit card payments for NFT purchases, according to a June 9, 2022, announcement.

Card Payments for NFT Purchases 

Mastercard, a leading multinational financial services corporation headquartered in New York, has announced its strategic partnership deal with several top blockchain-based digital collectibles platforms, including The Sandbox, Immutable X, Candy Digital, Mintable, Spring, Nifty Gateway, and MoonPay, to bring card payments to the metaverse.

According to a blog post by Mastercard, a recent survey by its researchers which polled more than 35,000 people in 40 countries around the globe found that 45 percent of respondents had previously purchased an NFT or making plans to do so, while about half of the surveyed population said they needed more flexibility and payment options when buying NFTs.

Against that backdrop, the 56-year-old payments giant is now collaborating with the aforementioned metaverse to make it possible for collectors to pay with their cards when they purchase digital NFTs. 

“We’re working with these companies to allow people to use their Mastercard cards for NFTs purchases, whether that’s on one of these companies’ marketplaces or using their crypto services. With more than 2.9 billion Mastercard cards worldwide, this change could have a big impact on the NFT ecosystem. Buy the NFTs you want on the marketplace of your choice. No need to buy crypto first,” declared Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s Executive Vice President, Digital Asset & Blockchain Products & Partnerships.

Fostering Global NFT Adoption

The NFTs industry has witnessed exponential growth over the years, making it one of the most popular use cases of distributed ledger technology (DLT). 

In 2021 alone, the NFT industry generated $40 billion in total sales. Though the NFT markets experienced a six-week period of slow sales earlier in the year, the industry has since regained momentum, with sales hitting $37 billion in May 2022, on course to surpass last year’s total volume in the coming months.

Mastercard has made it clear that collectors who pay with their cards for NFT purchases will also enjoy the same level of safety as the one they enjoy when making payments at physical retail locations or online. 

“We’re using our cybersecurity tools to boost safety and protect user data for purchases people make using a Mastercard card. The latest efforts are intended to build on the enormous potential of the NFT market, growing payment choices for consumers and expanding NFT communities,” the team added.

While some critics still see cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology as just mere bubbles, with no real use cases, Mastercard takes an entirely different approach. The tech giant has been making in-roads in the crypto and blockchain ecosystems in recent times.

As reported by crypto.news earlier in January 2022, Mastercard revealed plans to beef up its workforce with young professionals and expand its operations to include digital currency consulting and open banking services.