Coinbase partners with Mastercard to reduce friction in NFT purchases

Mastercard is pushing further towards supporting cryptocurrency products and services. The latest deal bagged by Mastercard is with the upcoming Coinbase NFT marketplace.

Coinbase announced plans to unveil an NFT marketplace last year. The waitlist for this offering currently stands at millions of users, showing that it will be one of the largest NFT platforms in the sector once it launches.

Mastercard to support NFT purchases

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Coinbase notes that through its latest partnership with Mastercard, the latter’s credit and debit cards will be used to buy various products and services on the NFT marketplace. Coinbase executives stated that this partnership will ease the process of buying NFTs.

The Coinbase NFT platform will allow the minting and purchase of non-fungible tokens. NFTs have become highly popular over the past year. However, the process of buying NFTs is currently long, and it could be too complex for those not well-versed in the crypto industry.

To buy an NFT, one needs to create a crypto wallet, buy cryptocurrencies and spend these on NFTs listed on an NFT marketplace. However, through Mastercard, those looking to buy NFTs will have an easier process.

Mastercard’s Raj Dhamodharan commented on this partnership, saying, “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 pursuing crypto partnerships

The boom in the popularity of cryptocurrencies over the past year has created an ideal opportunity for payment service providers that want to offer crypto-related services to their clients.

Mastercard has been at the forefront of securing deals with various cryptocurrency sector players. Some of the partnerships it has secured include Gemini, BitPay and Mintable. In October, Mastercard announced it partnered with Bakkt to allow banks and merchants to offer crypto-related services.

Mastercard’s greatest competitor, Visa, has also been active in the crypto space. Visa has partnered with around 60 companies in the cryptocurrency sector. Like Mastercard, Visa has also partnered with Coinbase to push its crypto agenda.