Visa has entered the NFT world by purchasing one of the famous CryptoPunks. To be precise, it bought the CryptoPunk 7610 for about $150,000, at 49.50 ETH.
Summary
Visa chooses NFT CryptoPunks
Visa says that it has always carved out a role for itself as an innovator in the world of technology and payments. That’s why it couldn’t help but enter the Non-Fungible Token sector as well.
The company’s point of view is explained by Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa and “NFT Enthusiast.”
“We think NFTs will play an important role in the future of retail, social media, entertainment, and commerce. To help our clients and partners participate, we need a firsthand understanding of the infrastructure requirements for a global brand to purchase, store, and leverage an NFT. Having worked with Anchorage Digital to complete this process, we’re better positioned to help our partners navigate the process.”
It’s clear from his words that Visa wants to play a leading role in the NFT industry:
“We also wanted to signal our support for the creators, collectors, and artists driving the future of NFT-commerce. Enabling buyers and sellers is what we do — whether it’s helping small and micro business owners get online or making it easier for companies to pay their partners across borders. We’re excited to work with this growing community to make NFTs useable and accessible in a variety of contexts.”
And again:
“Lastly, we wanted to collect an NFT that symbolizes the excitement and opportunity of this particular cultural moment. We’re a company steeped in the history of commerce and payments — but with our eyes on the future. With our CryptoPunk purchase, we’re jumping in feet first. This is just the beginning of our work in this space.”
Visa and the Future of Non-Fungible Tokens
Indeed, reasons Cuy Sheffield, Visa is aware that the NFT market is an ever-expanding one. Suffice it to say that in August alone, the market saw $1 billion in volume. In all of 2020, the NFT sector had recorded $100 million in traffic. That there is hype is evident.
Visa wants to insert itself into this space, bringing its expertise. The company’s Head of Crypto explains in this regard:
“In the near term, we want to help brands and businesses better understand NFTs and how they might be harnessed for customer and fan engagement. To that end, we published a paper with observations on today’s NFT landscape, as well as actionable guidance on how to evaluate and scale NFT opportunities.”
In this whitepaper, we read that NFTs could soon be a new form of commerce, especially in the sports and entertainment space, to engage fans and have a new form of revenue. However, they are still too little known. The purpose of the paper is, therefore, to shed light on this new digital asset.
In the long run, Visa intends to support buyers, sellers, and creators of NFTs.
CryptoPunks
CryptoPunks are among NFT’s most famous collections. Visa wanted to purchase one to celebrate its value in the industry. In fact, they were mined on the Ethereum blockchain back in “far” 2017 when the industry was growing, far from today’s values.
They represent nothing more than images of pixellated faces, which differ in certain aspects such as glasses, hair, beard, cap, and so on.
Ten thousand of them have been created. Today they are worth a total of over 2 billion dollars, and to get them, some spend staggering amounts of money, a sign that they are the protagonists of a real craze, which not even Visa has been able to resist.
