Mastercard Announces World’s First NFT Debit Card!

Estimated Read Time: 6min

Hey friends,

Great to have you back on this edition of Morning NFTea! Today we have some captivating stories including brands like Mastercard, Walmart, & Meta.

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On that note, let's get into it!

Mastercard Embracing NFTs

You might have a Mastercard-powered card in your wallet (or on your phone) right now, and it wouldn't be surprising considering there are currently 1.544 billion Mastercard debit cards in circulation worldwide (wallstreetzen, 2022). If you're one of these cardholders, then get ready to customize your card with your NFTs! A recent press release announced the crypto and financial app 'hi' has partnered with Mastercard to announce the world’s first NFT-customizable fiat and crypto debit card. Christian Rau, Senior Vice President, Crypto and Fintech Enablement at Mastercard, said “We are proud to be working with hi to continue to drive innovation in the market and enable these customizable cards together with the safety and security you’d expect from Mastercard”. He also adds that “As consumer interest in crypto and NFTs continues to grow, we are committed to making them an accessible payments choice for the communities who wish to use them”. Unfortunately, for now, only Gold-tier members of hi can decorate their Mastercards, and only with NFT collections CryptoPunks, Moonbirds, Goblins, Bored Apes, and Azukis. So this isn't by any means a game-changing move, but it is a positive baby step that could prove influential down the line. As legacy corporations like Mastercard continue to push into NFTs and Web3, the increased visibility improves the normalization and appeal for eventual mainstream adoption.

Walmart Takes A Step Into The Metaverse

Walmart, the multinational retail corporation serves around 40 million daily customers (Statista, 2020), and now they have just announced a fundamental step towards Web3. Walmart has announced the launch of two “immersive experiences”; Walmart Land and Walmarts Universe of Play. These locations of Walmart's first stab at the metaverse are hosted in Roblox, a 52 million daily active user platform that hosts millions of 3D games and worlds that are primarily created by users. The announcement comes after Walmart quietly filed for metaverse and NFT-related trademarks earlier this year. These included making or selling virtual goods and offering users virtual currency, as well as non-fungible tokens or NFTs. It is worth noting that Roblox is not a Web3 game, nor is it built around NFTs, but we know Walmart is looking at incorporating NFTs into their business, so this Roblox announcement displays another baby step from a legacy brand as they look to transition to the future of the internet, Web3.

Meta further expands NFT functionality across Instagram and Facebook

Our first ever newsletter back in May covered Instagram's announcement of displaying NFTs on your profiles for a select group of beta testers in the US, then in August Meta announced they would expand this beta support to more than 100 countries. Well now, this feature will be rolled out to ALL Facebook and Instagram users within the United States. Meta officially announced through Twitter “Everyone on @instagram and @facebook can now share their digital collectibles in the US, and on Instagram in the previously announced 100+ countries”. The feature currently supports multiple wallets for the Ethereum, Flow, and Polygon blockchains, with Solana not too far away. Both apps will see a new “digital collectibles” tab where you can connect your wallet, which gives you options for posting, sharing, and crossposting your digital collectibles with a shimmer effect that sets it apart from regular posts. Currently, there are only 28.6 million wallets holding NFTs (Findstack, 2022), so when you compare that to the over 1 billion Instagram monthly users and 2.9 billion Facebook monthly users (Statista, 2021), it puts into scope the influence this may have for NFT mainstream adoption.

Saudi Arabia Celebrates Its National Day In The Metaverse

Earlier this year we covered the United Arab Emirates as they pioneered virtual asset laws that aimed to support, regulate, and promote any digital asset/crypto-related endeavor. Now their geographical neighbor Saudi Arabia is also embracing Web3 by officially celebrating Saudi Arabis 92nd National Day on an NFT platform in the metaverse. The three-day celebration was hosted on Decentraland, which is a 3D virtual world powered by NFTs that serve as the land plots, outfits, avatars, and accessories to name a few. Between the 22nd - 24th of September, this immersive experience paid homage to Saudi Arabia through an authentic combination of culture, history, and entertainment. Event attendees could explore the digital Kingdom, interact with the various aspects of Saudi culture, and explore landmarks, food, music, art, and they could even buy wearable NFTs inspired by Saudi national attire. This type of event expands the National Day Celebration to all of Saudi, not just those near IRL parades. The event was only possible through a collaboration between the Bould Group and the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives. The Bould Group Co-Founder Abeer Alessa, said “Fusing our past with our future, we are honoring the storied history of the Kingdom, preserving our heritage and displaying it with pride for people to engage within the new digital realm”. Web3 and NFTs are constantly opening up never before seen opportunities, and now we can cross hosting a national holiday off our NFT bingo card.

Thanks for joining us, we hope you enjoyed this edition and we will be right back at you in a couple of days with the next round up but until then, take care!

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DISCLAIMER:

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.