Payments giant Mastercard announced this week that its cardholders can now purchase NFTs without crypto. The move comes as an effort to make purchasing NFTs easier and safer. 

The company has partnered with Immutable X, Candy Digital, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring, Nifty Gateway, and MoonPay. So, what exactly does Mastercard’s latest initiative mean for the NFT industry?

About Buying NFTs With Mastercard

Mastercard has partnered with various NFT marketplaces to enable its cardholders to purchase NFTs directly. 

The current partners include Web3 infrastructure provider, MoonPay; Immutable X, Candy Digital, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring, and Nifty Gateway. With this, users can purchase NFTs from a marketplace without buying crypto first. 

Raj Dhamodharam, the Executive Vice President, said, “We are working with these companies to enable people to use their Mastercard cards for NFTs purchases, whether on one of these companies’ marketplaces or using their crypto services. 

With 2.9 billion Mastercard cards worldwide, this change could significantly impact the NFT ecosystem. Moreover, Mastercard uses its cybersecurity tools to amp up security and protect users’ privacy while making transactions. Furthermore, the company added that its latest efforts are to “build on the enormous potential of the NFT market.”

What does this mean for the NFT space? 

It is no secret that the NFT space caters to crypto users. After all, a majority of NFT marketplaces only accept payments in crypto. Unfortunately, it means a significant entry barrier for non-crypto users. 

Mastercard’s latest initiative solves this, making digital asset purchases easier than before. Earlier this year, Mastercard partnered with Coinbase to enable users to buy NFTs on the Coinbase marketplace with Mastercard’s credit and debit cards.