The Montreal-based firm’s payment technology will allow users to purchase NFTs and conduct other transactions on Vancouver-based Dapper’s Flow blockchain.

What the deal means for Dapper: The integration with Nuvei will help enable a seamless user experience among Flow’s various applications and marketplaces, and may help its apps and NFTs work together instead of being self-contained. For example, users of Dapper’s flagship NBA Top Shot, a platform for buying and selling blockchain-based basketball video highlights, can use credit cards to make purchases directly. There’s a tradeoff involved, however. Users can’t take their NFTs off the platform to resell on other marketplaces, something Dapper CEO Roham Gharegozlou has said is necessary to comply with regulations. Developers who want to make applications with more flexibility on Flow could use the blockchain’s native token for payments, but that comes with its own tradeoffs—it’s only available on select international cryptocurrency-trading platforms and no regulated Canadian ones, and its value is volatile. 

In June, Dapper launched a stablecoin, called FUSD, designed to eliminate the volatility problem, partnering with an application called Ramp to allow developers and users to buy FUSD with dollars. The partnership with Nuvei gives users and developers another option for converting dollars into crypto for use on Flow, plus access to Nuvei’s fraud-protection and risk-management tools. Mickey Maher, Dapper’s senior vice-president of blockchain partnerships, said the integration with Nuvei will “play a crucial part in further enabling mainstream adoption” of blockchain and NFTs. 

What the deal means for Nuvei: Nuvei is positioning itself as a key payment provider for a rapidly growing market within tech. In its press release announcing the deal, the company cited research showing that around a third of all NFT traders “are now on the Flow blockchain.” It’s hardly the only company chasing the opportunity. GameStop plans to launch its own NFT marketplace, and major brands like Adidas have issued NFTs of their own. Nuvei already has exposure to crypto, including through agreements with crypto exchanges Binance and Huobi, and the deal with Dapper underscores how its foray into new verticals like crypto has ramped up since going public in 2020. Nuvei and Dapper didn’t respond to The Logic’s requests for comment.

What the deal means for the sector: Fintech firms with more conventional business models have been making more moves in recent months to get in on crypto. PayPal, for example, is exploring rolling out its own stablecoin, part of an effort to help customers hold and make purchases using digital currencies. And Vancouver-based fintech Mogo announced Tuesday that it’s investing in an NFT platform with more than US$50 million in trading volume in the last 30 days. The Nuvei and Dapper deal underscores how the line between the two types of businesses is starting to blur.