Visa joins NFT craze, spending $150,000 on rare CryptoPunk

OpenSea, a popular non-fungible token marketplace, hit $1.5 billion in nearly 30-day trading volume.
Visa's purchase of the CryptoPunk was facilitated by newly licensed bank Anchorage, the first known U.S. bank to custody non-fungible token assets.
Crypto analyst Lark Davis states that his timeline is all non-fungible tokens and shares a bullish outlook on collectible digital assets and income generation from them.

NFTs are building the foundation for the metaverse, a collective virtual shared space created by the convergence of physical reality and physically persistent virtual space. Payments giants and institutions like Visa are warming up to decentralized finance, buying into the NFT craze.

Visa steps into "NFT Commerce" with the acquisition of a CryptoPunk

Visa, an American multinational financial services corporation, has purchased its first non-fungible token, CryptoPunk 7610. The CryptoPunk NFT collection is one of the earliest, and it features 10,000 pixelated faces. The faces include humans, zombies, apes, and aliens.

The firm announced its NFT purchase on Twitter

Over the last 60 years, Visa has built a collection of historic commerce artifacts - from early paper credit cards to the zip-zap machine. Today, as we enter a new era of NFT-commerce, Visa welcomes CryptoPunk #7610 to our collection. https://t.co/XoPFfwxUiu
— VisaNews (@VisaNews) August 23, 2021

Visa's head of crypto, Cuy Sheffield, shared his thoughts on the latest purchase on Twitter. According to Sheffield, Visa believes NFTs will play an important role in the future of commerce and can help individual content creators and small and medium-sized businesses in new ways.

CryptoPunk 7610 is one of the 3840 female punks for nearly $150,000 on August 8.

Visa is known to collect vintage pieces related to commerce for its art collection. The purchase of the non-fungible token was facilitated by Anchorage using fiat currency. The U.S. bank custodied the NFT for Visa.

In an official blog post on Visa's website, the payments giant shared Sheffield's plans for NFT buyers and sellers and the role that Visa intends to play.

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...Looking ahead, we're working on some new concepts and partnerships that support NFT buyers, sellers, and creators. We look forward to sharing more in the months ahead.

NFTs are exploding since the beginning of 2021, and with Visa entering the ecosystem, it strengthens the grip of non-fungible tokens on crypto commerce.

OpenSea, the leading peer-to-peer marketplace for NFTs, has clocked $1.5 billion in sales volume based on data from dappradar.com. Marking approximately a 542% increase over the last month, OpenSea has captured nearly half of the total transaction volume in the NFT industry.

News of Visa’s interest in decentralized finance and NFTs comes at a time when digital art and collectibles are at the peak of their popularity on marketplaces like OpenSea. Therefore, further rise in NFT popularity and its stronghold on the metaverse is possible in the near term.

Crypto analysts have witnessed a surge in the mentions of NFTs in their crypto Twitter timelines and media headlines. Lark Davis, independent crypto analyst and YouTube content creator, tweeted

My timeline is like all NFTs now… and here I am still making sweet gains flipping alts and yield farming! #crypto

PS I have some NFTs but not million dollar ones lol
— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) August 23, 2021

Share: Cryptos feed

Information on these pages contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Markets and instruments profiled on this page are for informational purposes only and should not in any way come across as a recommendation to buy or sell in these assets. You should do your own thorough research before making any investment decisions. FXStreet does not in any way guarantee that this information is free from mistakes, errors, or material misstatements. It also does not guarantee that this information is of a timely nature. Investing in Open Markets involves a great deal of risk, including the loss of all or a portion of your investment, as well as emotional distress. All risks, losses and costs associated with investing, including total loss of principal, are your responsibility. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of FXStreet nor its advertisers. The author will not be held responsible for information that is found at the end of links posted on this page.

If not otherwise explicitly mentioned in the body of the article, at the time of writing, the author has no position in any stock mentioned in this article and no business relationship with any company mentioned. The author has not received compensation for writing this article, other than from FXStreet.

FXStreet and the author do not provide personalized recommendations. The author makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of this information. FXStreet and the author will not be liable for any errors, omissions or any losses, injuries or damages arising from this information and its display or use. Errors and omissions excepted.

The author and FXStreet are not registered investment advisors and nothing in this article is intended to be investment advice.