OpenSea Enables Debit & Credit Card Purchases

Collectors on OpenSea, the world's number one exchange for non-fungible tokens, will soon be able to buy NFTs without having any cryptocurrency, through the use of a credit card, debit card, or Apple Pay.

OpenSea is partnering with MoonPay, a crypto payment infrastructure company making moves with the space. The news was announced through Moonpay, the firm that has recently helped a myriad of celebrities purchase Bored Ape NFTs.

This new feature is expected to draw in more mainstream buyers, as before this was announced one would be required to have already purchased Ethereum on an exchange to buy an NFT.

This is just one out of a variety of moves that OpenSea has made this year leading to their fair share of headlines. Last month, OpenSea broke its previous volume record set in August of 2021, by generating over $5 billion in trading between Ethereum and Polygon sales.

This week the NFT marketplace confirmed the months-long rumor of listing Solana NFTs this month. No exact date has been given on when in April the SOL NFTs will be listed on OpenSea, but the NFT marketplace did tweet out a short teaser video that described the move as the “best-kept secret in Web3.”

Solana surged from the news, and NFT trading volume on the blockchain increased by over 80% on March 30th. The price of SOL would also see a significant increase rising 24% in the last seven days.

This year hasn't been all ups for OpenSea though, in January the website was apparently hacked leading to a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT selling for $1,700 worth of ETH, way below its floor price at the time.

In February, OpenSea users reported that NFTs from Cool Cats and Doodle collections had been stolen. CEO and co-founder of OpenSea, Devin Finzer, called the event a phishing attack.

“We don’t believe it’s connected to the OpenSea website. It appears 32 users thus far have signed a malicious payload from an attacker, and some of their NFTs were stolen,” Finzer said at the time.

Being the number one exchange for NFTs will continue to make OpenSea a target for attacks like these, but with a record-breaking $5 billion the company should already be investing in better security. This is something OpenSea will definitely need now that users can potentially get their actual bank accounts compromised.