• Mastercard, a payments tech firm, has been embroiled in controversy as Satvik Sethi, its former NFT product lead, made public allegations of workplace mistreatment and resigned.
• To make a statement, Sethi minted and sold his resignation letter as an NFT.
• In his post on Twitter, Sethi shared that he was mistreated by the management due to “a series of mismanaged processes, miscommunication [and] internal inefficiency” and had to work side jobs just to make ends meet.
Mastercard’s Fateful Entrance into NFTs
Payments tech firm Mastercard began its foray into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in 2021. However, it has been met with controversy as Satvik Sethi, its former NFT product lead made public allegations of workplace mistreatment when he resigned from the company.
Satvik Sethi’s Resignation
Sethi took to Twitter to share about his experience working for Mastercard in the past year where his salary package was cut by 40% during the bear cycle and industry-wide decline in NFTs. This happened when he decided to move from New York City to London. He also shared that there were instances when he had to beg “across the hierarchy” of Mastercard just to receive his salary and was harassed by the management due to “a series of mismanaged processes, miscommunication [and] internal inefficiency.”
Minting His Resignation Letter as an NFT
To make a statement after resigning from Mastercard, Sethi asked his Twitter followers for support through minting and selling his own resignation letter as an NTF (non-fungible token). The said letter was minted for 0.023 ETH with all proceeds going towards survival funds for Sethi himself.
Losing His British Work Visa
After resigning from Mastercard, Sethi revealed that he will soon lose his British work visa with a fallback plan of working and being based in India for the foreseeable future.
Conclusion
Mastercard has gone forward with initiatives such as partnering up with crypto firms like Coinbase and acquiring digital asset analytics firm CipherTrace since beginning its foray into non-fungible tokens this 2021. However, recent events have cast a shadow over these efforts due to allegations made by former employee Satvik Sethi regarding workplace mistreatment during his tenure at the payments tech giant which ultimately led himto minting and selling his resignation letter as an NFT out of protest against said mistreatment