Visa purchases $150k CryptoPunk NFT
Visa has jumped on the NFT-train with their purchase of one of the popular CryptoPunk NFTs – a first for the payment processing behemoth
In partnership with US bank Anchorage, Visa announced that they purchased the digital CryptoPunk 7610. The CryptoPunk NFT collection has skyrocketed in popularity since its inception, to the point where some individual pieces have been auctioned of for a million dollars. Total sales for the blue-chip NFT investment collection reached $752 million.
CryptoPunk 7610 was purchased for $150,000, and Anchorage will be taking custody of the avatar – the first bank to do so for an NFT. Each CryptoPunk is an automatically generated 24×24 pixel image, and Visa’s is a lady with a mohawk and large green eyes. There are 10,000 CryptoPunks in the collection.
Head of Crypto at Visa, Cuy Sheffield said, “We think that NFTs are going to play a really important role in the future of retail and social media, entertainment and commerce. So we wanted to understand firsthand what it takes to acquire, custody, and interact with an NFT. We’ve worked with Anchorage to do this so that we can build the expertise and be better positioned to help clients navigate this space.”
Engaging with the Metaverse
The term “metaverse” has been thrown around quite a bit recently, with Facebook developing some noteworthy social software to be used in conjunction with the Oculus VR headset.
The Metaverse is a virtual shared environment, generated by the merging of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the internet.
NFT promotions and interest have skyrocketed over the past few months as celebrities and massive brands are scrambling to not miss out on the second NFT bull season. Visa now added the caveat of wanting to be an instrumental part of the experience by buying more NFTs and become the engine of the Metaverse.
“We envision there could be a future where your crypto address becomes as important as your mailing address,” Sheffield says. “In the same way Visa’s been here through shifts of commerce before, we’re really excited to help drive this new shift of commerce in the future. The company also plans to purchase more NFTs.”
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