Users of Coinbase’s planned nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace will be able to utilize their cards to make purchases as part of a new cooperation with credit card provider Mastercard.
NFTs will be deemed “digital goods” under the deal, according to Mastercard executive vice president of digital asset and blockchain products Raj Dhamodharan, who wrote a blog post on Tuesday. The proposal aims to make it easier for non-crypto natives to participate in NFTs without the need for a wallet or the purchase of Ether (ETH) or other tokens.
“Cryptocurrency fans are used to this,” Dhamodharan explained. “However, for the majority of individuals, it is neither straightforward or intuitive.” We believe it should be a lot simpler. As a result, NFTs will be accessible to everyone […] The greatest approach to help the NFT market develop is to get more individuals participating in a safe and secure manner.”
More than 1 million individuals have signed up to be on the waiting list since Coinbase originally unveiled its NFT marketplace — under the proposed moniker “Coinbase NFT” — in October. Before making the NFT platform available to consumers in other countries, the crypto exchange aims to make it available to US users first.
Prior to Coinbase’s October announcement, big crypto exchanges FTX and Binance started their own NFT markets in response to the expansion of and interest in the NFT industry in 2021. Binance established an NFT platform in June, with the goal of “offering the best liquidity and lowest costs for consumers.” In September, FTX launched a platform that is only available to consumers in the United States.
According to a recent analysis from DappRadar, continuing the spike the previous year, there may be a bigger demand for NFTs in 2022. NFT transactions produced $10.7 billion in the third quarter of 2021 and $11.9 billion in the fourth quarter, according to the platform, with the first ten days of 2022 “looking great.”
“Despite the erratic nature of cryptocurrency cycles, NFTs have maintained a steady upward trend,” according to DappRadar analyst Pedro Herrera.