In Brief:
- Coinbase announced its partnership with Mastercard to simplify the process of NFT purchase.
- Coinbase customers will now be able to use Mastercard cards to make purchases.
- The purchases have to be made on Coinbase’s NFT marketplace.
One of the largest crypto exchanges, Coinbase announced a partnership with Mastercard on Tuesday, the latest in a flurry of recent alliances between payment and cryptocurrency heavyweights. The partnership will help people use their Mastercards to make purchases on Coinbase’s upcoming NFT marketplace.
“Buying digital goods should be as simple as buying a T-shirt or coffee pods on an e-commerce site. You can make your purchase with one click — that’s it ” remarked Mastercard.
Coinbase executives stated they hope to eliminate friction in the NFT buying process by partnering with Mastercard. Customers in the current scenario have to compulsorily open a crypto wallet, purchase digital currencies, and then spend those on NFTs in an online marketplace. Meanwhile, Mastercard said it wants to enable consumers to have more options when it comes to paying for NFTs.
“Getting more people involved safely and securely is perhaps the best way to help the NFT market thrive. As it does, Mastercard sees even greater potential for NFTs’ underlying tech to go beyond art and collectibles into many more areas,” Mastercard’s Raj Dhamodharan said.
Coinbase clients will now be able to use Mastercard credit and debit cards to make purchases on the crypto exchange’s NFT marketplace as part of the arrangement.
Coinbase first announced the launch of an NFT marketplace in October. Coinbase NFT marketplace will allow users to buy, sell and see non-fungible tokens. A non-fungible token is a one-of-a-kind piece of data that cannot be duplicated and is held in a digital ledger or wallet like a blockchain.
“For a large number of people, Coinbase was essentially a crypto on-ramp. With Mastercard, we want to do the same thing for NFTs by addressing the pain points — making it as simple as possible to acquire an NFT and ensuring the greatest possible consumer experience,” Prakash Hariramani, Coinbase’s senior director of product, said as much.
