NFT Art Purchased Visa, Why?

Non-Fungible Token (NFT), a non-fungible token that has recently been attracting attention online, is a digital asset whose ownership is tracked using a blockchain structure. On August 23, 2021, payment company Visa announced that it had purchased CryptoPunk #7610, a 24×24 pixel NFT artwork for $150,000.

Cryptopunk is a collective term for 10,000 pieces of NFT art released in 2017 by Larva Labs, a studio founded by a Canadian software developer. The NFT art included in Cryptopunk is a punk rocker style male and female made up of 24×24 pixels, and there are 10,000 copies of Cryptopunk #0 to #9999.

Initially, cryptopunk based on the Ethereum blockchain is distributed free of charge, and anyone with an Ethereum wallet can obtain it for free. Since then, as NFT awareness has increased, it has been traded at a higher price. In January 2021, Cryptopunk #2890, which looked like an astronaut, was sold for 700 million won, and in March, the same alien Cryptopunk #7804 was sold for a whopping 8.7 billion won.

Then, on August 23rd, payment company Visa announced that it had purchased Cryptopunk #7610 for 49.50 Ether and $149,939 at the time of the transaction. Visa has been collecting various cultural relics related to commerce, such as the first paper-made credit card and the system used for credit card transactions (Zip-zap) before the advent of electronic terminals, and the purchase of Cryptopunk #7610 is one of these.

Visa Cryptocurrency Head Kai Sheffield said Visa has decided to purchase Cryptopunk #7610 to recognize the role cryptopunk has played in the NFT project that connects culture and commerce, which is now a cultural icon for the crypto asset community. said.

In addition, this purchase was not only culturally meaningful, but also meant to express support for creators, collectors, and artists by promoting the future of NFT commerce as well as understanding the NFT commerce infrastructure through actual transactions. Just as the emergence of NFTs compared to the emergence of e-commerce enabled SMEs to reach customers around the world with the advent of sales sites, it can be said that the dissemination of NFTs has the potential to increase digital content sales using block chains.

Visa predicts that NFT will continue to grow in the future, and has already been helping companies understand NFT by releasing the NFT white paper. It also promised to start supporting its clients to participate in the NFT commerce ecosystem. Related information can be found here.