Visa, a payments technology business, said on Monday that it had purchased a CryptoPunk, a non-fungible token (NFT) exchange.
Last week, Visa paid roughly $150,000 for CryptoPunk 7610, one of 3,840 female punks. CryptoPunks are the first NFTs, having been released by Larva Labs in 2017. There are 10,000 pixel art images of misfits and eccentrics in this collection. Each CryptoPunk has an own personality and set of characteristics.
“Over the last 60 years, Visa has built a collection of historic commerce artifacts – from early paper credit cards to the zip-zap machine. Today, as we enter a new era of NFT-commerce, Visa welcomes CryptoPunk #7610 to our collection,” the fintech giant said in a tweet.
In a blog post, Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa, said, “To help our clients and partners participate, we need a firsthand understanding of the infrastructure requirements for a global brand to purchase, store, and leverage an NFT. Having worked with Anchorage Digital to complete this process, we’re better positioned to help our partners navigate the process.“
