Visa Joins NFT Mania, Purchases CryptoPunk

Visa is the latest major company to jump into the NFT mania. Seemingly, several big firms are experimenting with NFTs. For instance, CNN, The New York Times, and Fortune magazine have all sold their own NFTs recently.

The payment processing giant entered the NFT league through its first-ever NFT purchase, CryptoPunk #7610. Visa stated on Monday that it acquired a CryptoPunk for nearly $150,000 in ethereum (49.50 ETH). Today, however, the lowest price punk available is 73 ETH ($243,272.50 USD), which shows the rapid increase in CryptoPunk’s sales.

CryptoPunk is an NFT—a non-fungible token, digital avatar. Because of the scarcity of each asset, the value of these NFTs is high. In addition, it is a unique digital asset that is currently raking up sales thanks to Visa’s massive influence. However, it is unclear if CryptoPunk’s rise in sales is directly related to Visa’s actions but with this bull season, NFTs, in general, reached all-time highs.

The head of the crypto at Visa, Cuy Sheffield mentioned in a blogpost on Monday,

We think NFTs will play an important role in the future of retail, social media, entertainment, and commerce.

In fact, Visa mentioned that the company plans to become a vital part of the Metaverse. Sheffield says

We envision there could be a future where your crypto address becomes as important as your mailing address. We’re really excited to help drive this new shift of commerce in the future.

Additionally, Sheffield said that he thinks CryptoPunk has become a “cultural icon for the crypto community.”, hence, initiates the beginning of the company’s work in this space.

Furthermore, the payment processing giant also plans to acquire more NFTs in the future.

Source: https://coinquora.com/visa-joins-nft-mania-purchases-cryptopunk/