Coinbase Teams with Mastercard to Make Buying NFTs ‘Easy’

Mastercard will soon allow customers to purchase non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Coinbase’s upcoming NFT marketplace, the payment processing giant announced on Tuesday.  

The two companies formed the partnership to “make the process of buying NFTs very easy,” Prakash Hariramani, Coinbase senior product director for payments and commerce, said in a statement.  

“Coinbase was basically an on-ramp for crypto for many, many users. Millions of people were able to access bitcoin for the first time by using Coinbase,” Hariramani said. “So we want to do the same thing for NFTs with Mastercard by solving the pain points — to make it as easy as possible to buy an NFT and make sure it’s the best consumer experience.” 

Currently, prospective NFT buyers must go to marketplaces such as OpenSea and connect their crypto wallets to purchase a digital collectible. Mastercard and Coinbase’s deal will allow users to connect their bank cards and purchase an NFT without having to buy cryptocurrencies first. 

Colin Fitzpatrick, Founder and CEO of Animal Concerts, an NFT startup focused on virtual concerts in the metaverse, told Blockworks that the partnership will “create a highly accessible on-ramp for mainstream adoption.” 

Coinbase initially announced plans to launch an NFT marketplace called Coinbase NFT in October 2021 but has yet to launch its new product offering. When launched, the platform will allow users to purchase, mint, showcase and discover crypto assets on a peer-to-peer marketplace, according to the company. Over 1 million people have signed up for the Coinbase NFT marketplace waitlist. 

However, the company has not provided further clarification on when Coinbase NFT will go live. 

“Coinbase doesn’t need to hurry to release their NFT marketplace,” said Animal Concerts’ Fitzpatrick, “What they need is to create buzz, which is exactly what is happening.” 

Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) shares are trading 3.94% lower at $221.00 following the announcement. Mastercard Inc. (MA) has declined 1.37% as well, trading $367.53 per share, at time of publication. 

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