Mastercard's NFT Lead Exits, Selling Resignation Letter as NFT

In an extensive Twitter thread, Mastercard’s product lead for NFTs announced Thursday he had resigned from the global payments and credit card company, citing harassment and emotional distress.

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

“At Mastercard, I was a victim of harassment and emotional distress caused by a series of mismanaged processes, miscommunication, internal inefficiency,” Sethi wrote on Twitter. “There were months at a time when I wouldn’t receive my salary until I begged across the hierarchy for it, among many other issues.”

Sethi said that when he informed Mastercard human resources about the issues he was having, he was told that he would need to serve a three-month notice period before he could leave the company—which he says was a way to keep him from resigning.

Sethi accused Mastercard of locking his accounts in his tweet thread, sharing a picture of what appears to be his login screen.

When I tried to fight back and informed them that I had records of my conversations, they locked and disabled all my accounts, and with that preventing me from accessing ideas I spent months designing and not even giving me a chance to say goodbye to my team, clients, & peers. pic.twitter.com/fnqKs3I7HW
— Satvik Sethi (@sxtvik) February 2, 2023

“They might try to discredit me or downplay my contributions. But the fact is globally our partners, clients, and regional teams associate Mastercard [and] NFTs with me,” he said. “When anyone across our portfolio has a question on Web3 it would be redirected to me, from the CMO to an analyst.”

Sethi nor Mastercard immediately replied to Decrypt’s requests for comment.

Mastercard has taken several steps into the blockchain space in the last year. During the latest Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV, Mastercard announced tapping Polygon to launch its Artist Accelerator. The Mastercard Artist Accelerator aims to provide musicians and creators the tools to expand into Web3, including minting NFTs and establishing an online presence.

In pure Web3 fashion, Sethi said his resignation letter would be available as an Ethereum NFT. Titled “New Beginnings,” the tokenized letter had been minted 27 times as of this writing, according to the manifold webpage where its mint is hosted.

“If you want to support me, you can mint my resignation for 0.023 ETH. A piece of my personal history from the year I leaped,” Sethi said. “Art airdrop for holders in the future as thanks.”

Sethi’s departure from Mastercard comes after joining the company in August 2020, where he started as an analyst on its global bill pay product development team. He would later move to London to become the company’s product lead on NFTs.

By quitting Mastercard, Sethi said, he will lose his work VISA and will be working out of India until he can find an immigration solution. According to a LinkedIn post, the former product lead plans on building his own company from scratch instead of joining another firm.

Being an immigrant is difficult and not many people understand that. I’ve been separated from friends, family, & been at the behest of my employer for how to live my life, twice now. I can’t go on like this. My mental health was really struggling, panic attacks & depression.

— Satvik Sethi (@sxtvik) February 2, 2023

Sethi thanked his followers on Twitter for their support, saying that he had worked on the Twitter thread for over a year and was relieved to finally be able to share it.