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Visa Steps into NFT Craze with CryptoPunk Purchase of $150,000

Visa Inc has become the latest major firm to get in on the NFT craze. The Major US payment company announced on Monday, August 23, that it purchased a “CryptoPunk”, one of the thousands of non-fungible tokens (NFT)-based digital avatars, for almost $150,000 on Ethereum.

Cuy Sheffield, head of the crypto at Visa, talked about the development and said that the key purpose behind Visa’s purchase was to learn more about the rising popularity of the NFT market.

Sheffield stated that Visa thinks that NFTs will play a significant role in the future of commerce, retail, entertainment and social media to help its clients and partners participate, “we need a firsthand understanding of the infrastructure requirements for a global brand to purchase, store, and leverage an NFT,” he added.

Sheffield also mentioned that Visa wanted to show its support for the artists, creators, and collectors developing NFT commerce.

He further stated that CryptoPunks has become a “cultural icon for the crypto community,” saying that Visa wanted to collect an NFT that symbolizes the opportunity and excitement of that particular cultural moment.

Sheffield compared NFTs to the early days of e-commerce, in which small businesses were empowered to sell online and reach customers worldwide. “We can envision a future in which your crypto address becomes as important as your mailing address,” Sheffield said.

NFTs Opportunities for Brands

NFTs have proven to be extremely popular and valuable.

One NFT by US artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, sold in a JPF file at an online auction for $69.3 million. Jack Dorsey, Twitter and Square CEO, sold the first-ever Tweet as an NFT for $2.9 million and donated the proceeds to charity.

Visa has joined numerous big firms that have been experimenting with NFTs lately. Big brands such as Team GB British Olympic team, the NBA professional basketball league, the South China Morning Post media outlet, Asics sports equipment manufacturing company, and Coca-Cola multinational beverage corporation, have all been experimenting with NFTs as efforts to tap into the growing popularity of virtual worlds and connect with consumers.

Meanwhile, several media publications such as Fortune Magazine, the New York Times, and CNN have sold their NFTs. And consumer goods companies like Taco Bell and Pringles have already issued and sold some of their NFTs as a way to promote their products and brandings to their target audiences.

Most recently, General Mills, a US food company, auctioned 10 digital artworks as NFTs to promote the return of its chocolate-flavoured Dunkaroos, a popular snack brand discontinued in 2012.

This CryptoPunk Owner Refuses to Accept a $9.5M Bid for His Rare NFT

Owning a piece of Non-Fungible Token (NFT) nowadays is not just a way to own bragging rights today, it has become a prominent way to store assets for many people. This has pushed a Twitter user with the handle @richerd to reject a 2,500 ETH (approximately $9.5 million) bid for CryptoPunk #6046.

NFTs provide a new way to store a piece of art on the blockchain such that they prove authenticity, and are verifiable. NFTs have become one of the most important use cases of blockchain technology today, and the innovation has unleashed the creativity in digital artists around the world today, harnessing the opportunities NFT has brought.

Amongst the pioneering NFT collections are the CryptoPunks, a collection of 10,000 randomly generated images created by the startup Larva Labs. CryptoPunks is currently the top NFT collection of all time on the NFT marketplace OpenSea, with over 551,000 ETH (~$2.1 billion) in total sales volume.

A large NFT collection like CryptoPunks are often tagged by their rarities, and one of the extremely rare ones was Punk #6046 which Richerd said is “not for sale” no matter what bid was offered.

In justifying the rejection of the bid placed by poap.eth as seen on LarvaLabs page for the Punk, Richerd stated that his refusal was partly based on the fact that a huge part of his only identity has been built around the CryptoPunk.

“My identity along with the identity of other iconic Punks and apes have value beyond the NFT itself. We have our own brands similar to any other brand and that has value. Because I value my personal brand and identity, this was an easy rejection for me,” Richard tweeted, “I have huge conviction in the NFT space and in Punks. When it comes to NFTs space I think very long term. To me, my brand, identity, and what I’m building in the NFT space will be way more valuable in the long run.”

While Punk #6046 would have been the most valuable of all the CryptoPunks sold to date had the bid been accepted, Beeple’s “Everydays” remains the highest-grossing NFT piece of all time with a $69.3 million valuation when it was auctioned off in March.

CryptoPunk, Meebits Owners can now Create Commercial Projects With Their NFTs

Owners of CryptoPunk and Meebits non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can now create commercial projects and products based on their NFTs.

The announcement comes following Yuga Labs’ release of its long-awaited intellectual property (IP) licensing deal for CryptoPunk and Meetbits NFT holders on Monday.

Yuga Labs first bought the collections from Larva Labs in March, and holders of these NFTS have been awaiting the announcement since then.

The new IP licensing agreement has put these NFT holders on the same level as the IP rights enjoyed by the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s holders, as the deal will give them full commercialisation rights to create projects and products based on their NFTs.

Some of the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s holders have already used the IP in projects.

For instance, American actor, producer, writer and director Seth Green is launching a show based on his recently-returned Ape. He reclaimed his stolen bored ape avatar NFT by spending over $300,000.

While restauranteur Andy Nguyen also opened Bored Ape-themed restaurant Bored & Hungry in Los Angeles in June 2022.

Although Yuga Labs own the IP, NFT holders can license it.

However, in a different scenario previously, Larva Labs received criticism for handling IP licensing differently and retaining the intellectual property rights to the collections. Larva Labs’ decision also prompted at least one NFT holder to sell their CryptoPunk in protest.

Several other NFT collection creators have taken different approaches to handling IP rights.

Moonbirds NFT earlier this month switched to a public domain usage model, adopting the Creative Commons CC0 copyright code, which has provided access to anyone to commercially use and reproduce art from both Moonbirds and Oddities – its sister project.

However, this decision has also attracted backlash as holders have complained that they had bought into the project believing they had exclusive rights to their NFT.