Visa enters the NFT market with CryptoPunk purchase
Payments giant Visa has made a splash in the NFT market with the purchase of a collectable CryptoPunk avatar.
Last week, Visa snapped up one of only 3,840 female CryptoPunks for just shy of $150,000 (£109,363). The avatar featured green clown eye makeup, red lipstick and a mohawk adding to its rarity.
Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa announced the purchase in a blog post today.
He wrote, “what began as an early artistic experiment has quickly become a cultural icon for the crypto community. In fact, to recognize the role that CryptoPunks have played as an historic NFT project, bridging culture and commerce, Visa has decided to purchase CryptoPunk 7610.”
Sheffield said the purchase was driven by a desire to learn more about the architecture around NFT purchases so that the company can help its clients and partners participate in the digital art market.
The news comes as OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, recorded record transaction volumes in August. In the past 30 days transaction volumes on OpenSea topped $1.71bn with $118.29 taken yesterday, the highest volume for a single day since the platform’s launch.
While the NFT market has seen uneven interest throughout its history, Sheffield is confident that NFTs have a clear use-value as a way to boost fan and brand engagement as well as empowering creators.
CryptoPunks have been experiencing surging demand with transaction volume at $73.68 in the past 24 hours, up 1324.8 per cent compared to the previous day.
Read more: Crypto rush: NFT market hits new record high