Multinational Payments Giant Visa Purchases Cryptopunk NFT for $165K in Ether

One of the world’s most valuable companies in terms of market capitalization, Visa, has revealed it has purchased a non-fungible token (NFT) from the Cryptopunks collection. Visa’s official news-based Twitter account told its 114,000 followers it paid 49.5 ether ($165K) for the Cryptopunk #7610.

Visa Is a Believer in Non-Fungible Token Commerce

On August 23, the American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in California explained that the firm has purchased a Cryptopunk to add to the company’s “collection.” Visa noted that it has been a collector of rare and historical items for a long time and it believes non-fungible token-based commerce has introduced a “new era” of collecting.

“Over the last 60 years, Visa has built a collection of historic commerce artifacts – from early paper credit cards to the zip-zap machine,” Visa News tweeted on Monday. “Today, as we enter a new era of NFT-commerce, Visa welcomes Cryptopunk #7610 to our collection.”

Visa & NFTs: ‘Engaging Today’s Fans in Crypto’

Cryptopunks is the week’s third-largest project in terms of sales. Statistics show that Cryptopunks saw $28.1 million across 168 sales over the last seven days.

“We support the creators, collectors, and artists driving the future of NFT-commerce,” Visa News further emphasized on Twitter. “Curious about NFTs and how to integrate them in your brand strategy? Check out the latest from Visa on evaluating and scaling crypto art,” the Twitter account said, sharing a Visa article about NFTs.

The report called “Engaging Today’s Fans in Crypto and Commerce” discusses non-fungible tokens in-depth and concludes that while commerce is changing, NFTs could shape the future going forward. “Commerce is evolving, and innovations such as crypto and NFTs are likely to shape sports, entertainment, and other communities going forward,” Visa’s report highlights. The Visa NFT report continues:

NFTs represent a deeper and more innovative way for fans to engage and potential new revenue streams for organizations. However, there are many considerations to take into account when integrating NFTs because it is a new space.

The official Visa News Twitter account did not delve further into what it meant by adding Cryptopunk #7610 to its “collection.” It could mean that Visa owns more NFTs than the public is aware of at the moment. The NFT collectible Cryptopunk #7610 is currently owned by the Opensea account called “Wrappedcryptopunks-escrow.”