Visa’s $150,000 Crypto Punk Purchase Is About To Increase Cryptoart’s Acceptance In Mainstream Culture

The art world has been a place where people could collect physical paintings or sculptures, but there was no clear way of collecting digital artwork. Crypto art, a digital art form, has become a recently dominating topic since it now allows people to have verified ownership over a piece of digital art.

What exactly is Crypto Art?

From digital graphics to programmable art, crypto art is a digital asset that can take many forms. These artworks usually have different themes and are tied to blockchain that helps differentiate the artwork from forgery and therefore, verify its ownership.

Crypto Art on the boom

This new trend seemed to come out of nowhere but is suddenly everywhere, so much that even Visa is now a part of it. The company bought a $150,000 Crypto Punk for its corporate collection, causing an immediate NFT market rush. Within only an hour of Visa’s purchase, there was an estimated $20 million in combined sales. Now, average prices for Punks hover around $199,000 a pop, which is more than double last month’s figure.

NFT and Digital Art

NFT, also known as Non-fungible tokens, are unique digital collectibles on the blockchain. NFT can be anything digital, such as drawings or music, but the recent excitement has been around using it to sell digital art. Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, believes NFTs will play an important role in the future of retail, commerce, social media, and entertainment. In a recent interview, Sheffield stated that the $150,000 purchase was motivated by an urge to learn more about the growing market for digital art.

With crypto art and NFT, digital art is now like physical goods that can be bought, sold, traded, and collected. After its huge purchase, Visa is officially getting into the game. Now, with its growing popularity, the NFT market might eventually need banks to help regulate sales.