The partnership with MasterCard gives Coinbase users an additional payment method when buying NFTs. The initiative will simplify the otherwise “complex” experience for new users trying to buy NFTs.
Coinbase Global Inc. will soon allow users to buy NFTs on its planned NFT marketplace using MasterCard, meaning they’ll not need to own cryptocurrencies to make the purchases. The leading U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange announced the partnership with giant payment processor MasterCard, saying it aimed to simplify the NFT buying experience.
Coinbase plans to open an NFT marketplace that has already accumulated over 2.5 million people on its waitlist for its NFT platform since it announced the plan last October, making it a challenger to leading platforms such as OpenSea. MasterCard’s manager in charge of digital asset and blockchain partnerships, Raj Dhamodharan, said in a blog post:
“Today, if you want to buy an NFT—such as a digital art piece—you first need to open a crypto wallet, buy crypto, then use it to purchase an NFT in an online marketplace […] we think it should be much easier. That will ensure NFTs can be for everyone.”
Buying NFTs with Mastercard
Coinbase’s head of Paments Prakash Hariramani, gave details of the development, saying that the firm’s mission was to increase economic freedom around the globe. He explained that by enabling more users to join the creator economy and profit from their work, NFTs have a vital role in this mission. He, however, noted that buying an NFT remained a complex experience for many users.
He said that the decision was meant to simplify the user experience to allow more people to join the NFTs community. Hariramani elaborated that just how the exchange helped millions of people access Bitcoin in an easy and trusted manner, it was working on doing the same for NFTs. The exchange said in its press release:
“Thanks to our work with Mastercard, we’ll be able to provide a better customer experience on Coinbase NFT, and plan on working to find ways to bring this opportunity to the broader ecosystem through MasterCard’s scale and global network.”
A win-win for artists and fans
The partnership between Coinbase and MasterCard happens when the NFT craze has gone a notch higher. The demand for non-fungible tokens skyrocketed significantly last year, attracting over 280,000 unique buyers and sellers by the end of August 2021. Coinbase announced plans to launch an NFT marketplace in October 2021 to enable users to mint buy and showcase their NFTs.
NFTs have revolutionized the traditional world of art, roping in other industries like music, gaming, and fashion by recognizing the power of NFTs to unlock new forms of creativity and ownership. Coinbase joins other crypto exchanges with plans to grow the creator community exponentially, which is a win-win for artists and fans by positioning itself as a peer-to-peer marketplace whose filters are based on the users’ interests.
Tom is a freelance writer with over 10-years’ experience in content creation, blog writing, and SEO specializing in the blockchain and cryptocurrency niche. As a philosophical figurehead, he believes that to make our world a better place, we must invest in incorruptible products and procedures, of which Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are leading examples.
