Mastercard NFT Controversy
- Satvik Sethi, former NFT product lead at Mastercard, publicly alleged workplace mistreatment after his resignation.
- Sethi claims that Mastercard cut out his salary package by 40%, and he was harassed by the management due to “a series of mismanaged processes, miscommunication [and] internal inefficiency.”
- Sethi minted and sold his resignation letter as an NFT in a coup de grâce move.
Background on Mastercard’s Foray into the Crypto Space
Payments tech firm Mastercard began its foray into NFTs sometime in 2021. The company has since partnered with crypto firms such as Coinbase, even going forth with the acquisition of digital asset analytics firm CipherTrace.
Allegations of Workplace Mistreatment
Satvik Sethi, former NFT product lead at Mastercard, recently made public allegations of workplace mistreatment as he resigned. In a coup de grâce move, Sethi minted and sold his resignation letter as an NFT. He railed against the payments tech giant for allegedly mistreating him and downplaying his role in the company’s ambition to enter the crypto space.
Sethi claimed that during the recent bear cycle and industry-wide decline in NFTs, Mastercard cut out his salary package by 40%. Additionally, there were instances when he had to beg “across the hierarchy” of Mastercard just to receive his salary. Furthermore, Sethi also asserted that he was harassed by the management due to “a series of mismanaged processes, miscommunication [and] internal inefficiency”.
Selling His Resignation Letter as an NFT
After resigning from Mastercard, Sethi asked his Twitter followers to support him with the minting of an NFT: his own resignation letter. The NFT in question was minted for 0.023 ETH – with 100% proceeds going towards survival according to Sethi himself. The former NFT product lead later said that he will soon lose his British work visa – with a fallback option being working and being based in India for now.
Conclusion
. Despite its efforts to gain traction within cryptocurrency markets this year through its partnerships with Coinbase and CipherTrace – among others – it appears that past experiences are making many wary about entrusting their assets or future endeavors with institutions like Mastercard who have yet to prove themselves trustworthy within this space..
