Non-fungible tokens (NFT) have been all the rage throughout 2021, and the NFT fever isn’t going to die down anytime soon. Just in case you still don’t understand the acronym, NFT refers to digital pieces of art that you can purchase and sell with digital currencies. Ownership of an NFT is forever saved in a blockchain, which means you’ll always know who owns an NFT and track NFT trading. NFTs will probably be part of the future of the internet, currently called web3, metaverse included. And crypto exchanges are getting ready to cash in on the popularity of NFT trading. Kraken revealed a few days ago it wants to offer customers loans against their NFTs, teasing that a marketplace might be available on the exchange. Coinbase intends to make NFT trading even more accessible by allowing buyers to pay for NFT items with fiat money with Mastercard’s help.
The Coinbase NFT marketplace
Coinbase announced in mid-October that its Coinbase NFT marketplace is coming soon without revealing a release date. The peer-to-peer marketplace will let customers interact with NFTs on Coinbase. That means you’ll be able to mint new NFTs, showcase your collection, and trade them.
While you can’t access the Coinbase NFT marketplace just yet, you can join a waitlist to get access to it once the exchange releases it. This is the link that you want to visit.
But buying and selling NFTs requires access to some form of digital currency. The process involves purchasing a cryptocurrency with fiat money. You can then use the crypto tokens to buy NFTs. Selling them works similarly.
The Mastercard partnership
That’s where Mastercard comes in place. Coinbase wants to make it easier for buyers to buy and sell NFTs. Fiat transactions might be the kind of NFT “upgrade” that some people might appreciate.
Coinbase just announced that it’s working with the payments processor to classify NFTs as “digital goods.” Moreover, Coinbase will “unlock” a new ay to pay using Mastercard cards.
However, it’s unclear how soon Mastercard payments are coming to Coinbase NFTs. The Coinbase NFT marketplace has to launch before that happens. And there’s still o date for that. But you can still sign-up to get early access to it, as explained above.
Mastercard confirmed its interest in NFTs via its own blog post. The company mentioned the partnership with Coinbase that will let buyers purchase NFTs with credit cards.
Like Coinbase, Mastercard explains that the advantage of paying for NFTs via credit cards is that it’ll make the entire process easier and safer for the user. It’ll eliminate some of the steps above that involve using digital tokens to trade NFTs.
That doesn’t mean NFTs will get cheaper because you pay for them in fiat currency. But it’ll just be easier to get in on the NFT action.
