Mastercard's NFT Product Lead Chief Satvik Sethi Resigns, Citing Abuse and Emotional Suffering

File Photo

New Delhi: Mastercard's product lead for NFTs announced his resignation from the global payments and credit card business on Thursday in a lengthy Twitter thread, citing abuse and emotional suffering. Sethi claimed on Twitter that he had experienced harassment and emotional anguish at Mastercard as a result of a number of poorly managed processes, miscommunications, and internal inefficiencies. "Among many other problems, there were times when I wouldn't get paid for months at a time unless I petitioned across the hierarchy for it."

Sethi claimed that he had to serve a three months notice period before he could leave the company and it was an attempt to prevent him from quitting when he alerted Mastercard human resources about his problems. ()

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

In his tweet thread, Sethi accused Mastercard of shutting his accounts and shared a screenshot of what appears to be his login screen.

Not just that, I was informed by HR despite my contract that I would have to serve a 3 month notice period so I wouldn’t resign. Yet, when I resigned I was told I’ll only receive 1 month pay and no benefits, & pressured into accepting it quickly or threatened to lose my bonus.

 Satvik Sethi (sxtvik) February 2, 2023

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 attempt to cast me in doubt or minimise my contributions. But the truth is that everywhere in the world, our clients, regional teams, and partners associate me with Mastercard and NFTs," he remarked. When someone from any part of our portfolio has a query about Web3, the CMO will refer them to me, not an analyst.

On Sethi's resignation, MasterCard has not issued a statement. Despite Sethi's significant function, it will probably still provide its many non-fungible token features.