Payments tech firm Mastercard, which began its foray into NFTs sometime in 2021, is in for some bit of controversy as Satvik Sethi, its former NFT product lead, 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.
In previous reports, CryptoDaily detailed how Mastercard has partnered with other crypto firms such as Coinbase, even going forth with the acquisition of digital asset analytics firm CipherTrace. Sethi railed against the payments tech giant for allegedly mistreating him and downplaying his role in the company’s ambition to enter the crypto space.
Here’s what Sethi had to say:
I have resigned from @Mastercard.
For the past year, I served as the ‘NFT Product Lead.’ I evangelized Web3 for Mastercard leadership & regional teams, as well as all our Fortune 500 clients & partners.
This wasn’t easy but read on for why it was necessary, and what’s next 🧵: pic.twitter.com/kqiavsSIW7
— Satvik Sethi (@sxtvik) February 2, 2023
Sethi claims that Mastercard cut out his salary package by 40%, this, during the recent bear cycle and industry-wide decline in NFTs. This also coincided, according to Sethi, during his decision to move from New York City to London. Sethi shared how he “had to work side jobs this past year to make ends meet” because of the pay cuts.
Sethi also claimed that there were instances when he had to beg “across the hierarchy” of Mastercard just to receive his salary. Moreover, Sethi also asserted that he was harassed by the management due to “a series of mismanaged processes, miscommunication [and] internal inefficiency.”
After his resignation, 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.
“100% of this goes to survival,” shared Sethi.
The former NFT product lead later said that he will soon lose his British work visa, with a fallback of working and being based in India for the foreseeable future.
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