Visa has launched a programme to help digital-first artists grow their businesses through non-fungible tokens.
The payments giant notes that there are some 50 million artists, musicians, designers, filmmakers and other creators publishing content as a full- or part-time source of income, contributing to a $100 billion economy.
The new one year Visa Creator programme promises to help some of these artists who want to incorporate NFTs into their business model.
Those picked to join the cohort will get technical and product mentorship from Visa's crypto experts; access to their fellow members as well as industry thought leaders and Visa clients and partners; and a stipend.
Visa, which last year splashed out $150,000 on its own CryptoPunk NFT, has been investigating how it can tap into an area that has seen explosive growth.
Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto, Visa, says: "NFTs have the potential to become a powerful accelerator for the creator economy. We’ve been studying the NFT ecosystem and its potential impacts on the future of commerce, retail and social media.
"Through the Visa Creator Program, we want to help this new breed of small and micro businesses tap into new mediums for digital commerce."