Coinbase partners with Mastercard to let users buy NFTs via cards

Crypto exchange Coinbase and payments giant Mastercard have teamed up to simplify the buying experience of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Today people have to use crypto for buying NFTs on platforms like OpenSea. Coinbase and Mastercard are working on letting users buy NFTs via Mastercard cards on Coinbase’s upcoming NFT platform.

Mastercard said buying NFTs should be as simple as buying a t-shirt online. But today users first need to open a crypto wallet, buy crypto, then use it to purchase an NFT in an online marketplace, it said.

“As an important step in this mission, we’re excited to announce today that we’re partnering with Coinbase to let people use their Mastercard cards to make purchases on Coinbase’s upcoming NFT marketplace,” said Mastercard.

Coinbase announced its NFT marketplace in October. It will let people mint and buy NFTs. The company also opened a waitlist at the time for users to join the marketplace and saw a massive response. More than 1 million people signed up for the Coinbase NFT marketplace.

“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. 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,” said Prakash Hariramani, senior director of product at Coinbase.