International payments company Mastercard announced working to unlock NFT trading with the Layer 2 scaling solution ImmutableX, the digital collectibles company Candy Digital, The Sandbox metaverse, the NFT marketplaces Mintable, Spring, Nift Gateway, and crypto payments company MoonPay.
Related: Mastercard Applied for About 15 Crypto-Related Trademarks
In a published blog post, Mastercard said it is collaborating with these companies to enable people to use their cards to acquire NFTs. There are 2.9 bln Mastercard cards in the world, and the change can have a big impact on the space. The option will allow card holders to buy NFTs on the mentioned marketplaces without the need to purchase crypto first. Mastercard reports that the marketplaces together generated over $25 bln in sales in 2021.
Earlier, in January, Mastercard announced a collaboration with Coinbase to enable payments with cards on Coinbase’s new NFT marketplace. By increasing integrations, Mastercard aims to expand its adoption of Web3 making crypto more available and helping the NFT ecosystem continue to grow.
Mastercard noted it's what people want. According to a survey by the company, 45% of around 35,000 people had bought an NFT or would think doing so. Participants wanted flexibility and the possibility to pay with cryptocurrencies for everyday purchases or using a card to acquire NFTs.