OpenSea, the popular Non-Fungible Token (NFT) marketplace, has added direct card payments via MoonPay to its site, making it easier for people who don’t have crypto to get an NFT.
According to a MoonPay spokesman, collectors will be able to pay immediately using Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, among other options, rather than needing to convert to certain cryptocurrencies first.
MoonPay’s plug-and-play solution for purchasing and selling NFTs using a credit card was initially introduced in January. The announcement comes as Mastercard announced a partnership with Coinbase to allow customers to purchase NFTs with their debit and credit cards.
Is there a catch to using a card on OpenSea?
All NFTs are supported natively on OpenSea, and all deliveries are handled on-chain, which means OpenSea users don’t have to leave the platform to pay, and they aren’t tethered to a custodial ledger or required to utilize a certain token.
The disadvantage of paying via credit card is that it may cost more due to additional fees.
The card payment method is applicable to both primary and secondary NFT sales, including minting and first drops.
According to MoonPay, the service will be given out in stages to different groups of users. Those that use OpenSea will have to keep their NFTs in their own wallets. This means that it still requires some knowledge of the crypto space, such as what a wallet is and how it functions.
Although the move aims to bring non-crypto people into the NFT fold, it still will take them some time to get used to using a crypto wallet.
This is the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at making NFTs more accessible to the general public. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, had also indicated earlier this month that Instagram would try to include NFTs over the next few months. Twitter also has a feature to use an NFT as a profile picture.