While in the early years of crypto involvement in the charity sector may have come across as a little gimmicky if well-intentioned, the advantages of using cryptocurrency for NGOs and charities come with real-world use cases, from monitoring donations with complete transparency over the blockchain to improving trust with donors at scale. In addition, this capability underlines a broader point that fundraising can be transformed globally by allowing charities to accept payments without the prohibitive cost of foreign exchange and transaction fees. And at another level, for charities working in hard-to-reach parts of the world, the ability to replace fiat currency with crypto alternatives from Bitcoin to stablecoins to pay for staff and running costs have already paid off in places like Afghanistan.

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Visa buying a CryptoPunk NFT for around $150,000 recently may be the first sign that these unique digital assets are starting to be taken seriously for commerce. Up until now the sale of these ‘non-fungible assets’ has been associated with high priced artwork, but Visa’s purchase, while also about art, is really about promoting their expertise to businesses in the field of using NFTs for commerce. Indeed, in a report ^[1] coinciding with the CryptoPunk purchase they state a longer-term vision: “While the prices of individual NFTs fluctuate, fascinating use cases for NFTs are still emerging and the groundwork is being laid for the long-term utility of NFTs.”

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