Visa is also buying a crypto punk

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Visa can now call the Cryptopunk with the number 7610 its own. With the purchase of the virtual punk, the financial service provider enters the world of NFT trading.

The payment provider Visa announced on Monday that the company had bought a Cryptopunk. Cost about 150,000 US dollars. Cryptopunk 7610 is one of 3,840 female punks. Cryptopunks are considered the original NFT in the scene, as they were introduced by Larva Labs back in 2017 – long before the big NFT hype. The pixelated art collection consists of 10,000 individual images of eccentrics and outsiders.

Each cryptopunk has its own personality and a unique combination of features. Cryptopunk 7610 comes around the corner with the mohawk that is typical for punks, green clown eyes and a red lipstick that cannot be overlooked.

In one Interview with The Block explains Cuy Sheffield, head of the crypto department of Visa, the purchase of the cryptopunks: “We thought that Cryptopunks would be a great addition to our collection of artifacts that record and celebrate the past, present and future of trade”.

Visa owns several vintage relics of the trading past. Including earlier paper credit cards or a Knuckle-Buster that used to record credit card transactions – and now a Cryptopunk. From Sheffield’s point of view, this is a logical step, because after all, Cryptopunks are the pioneers of NFT technology.

But the NFT was not only acquired out of pure collecting interest. Visa believes that NFTs will play an important role in the future of trade. Sheffield draws a comparison to the beginnings of e-commerce. Online trading gave smaller businesses the chance to reach customers around the world. However, it still required physical goods that had to be produced and shipped. NFT, on the other hand, enables small businesses to use a public blockchain to create digital goods that can be instantly delivered to a crypto wallet.

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