Coinbase announces NFT marketplace partnership with Mastercard

The largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange $Coinbase (COIN.US)$ announced the partnership with payment giant $MasterCard (MA.US)$ on Tuesday, which aims at simplifying the experience of buying non-fungible tokens, the digital ownership certificates for goods such as art pieces, that have seen soaring popularity in the past year.

Coinbase said it will let users make purchases on its planned NFT marketplace through their Mastercard cards—without having to own cryptocurrency.

Coinbase has accumulated more than 2.5 million people on its waitlist for its NFT platform since it announced the plan last October, making it a challenger to leading platforms such as OpenSea.

"Today, if you want to buy an NFT—such as a digital art piece—you first need to open a crypto wallet, buy crypto, then use it to purchase an NFT in an online marketplace," Mastercard's Raj Dhamodharan, who leads the company's digital asset and blockchain partnerships, wrote in a blog post. “We think it should be much easier. That will ensure NFTs can be for everyone.”

Mastercard has been on a crypto partnership spree lately. Mastercard announced in October that it's teaming up with Bakkt to let banks and merchants in its network offer crypto-related services. It has also partnered up with Gemini, BitPay and Mintable, among others.

Rival $Visa (V.US)$ has been equally active the crypto space. The company has more than 60 partnerships with companies in the space, including the one with Coinbase.

$American Express (AXP.US)$ has also said it's exploring using its cards and network with stablecoins.

Source: Bloomberg, Fortune, CNBC