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In a wide-ranging Twitter thread, Mastercard’s product manager for NFTs announced Thursday that he had resigned from the global payments and credit card company, citing harassment and emotional distress.
“At Mastercard, I was a victim of harassment and emotional distress caused by a series of mismanaged processes, miscommunications, internal inefficiencies,” Sethi wrote on Twitter. “There were months at a time when I would not receive my salary until I pleaded with the hierarchy about it, among many other issues.”
Sethi said that when he informed Mastercard’s human resources about the problems he was having, he was told he would need a three-month notice period before he could leave the company — which he says was a way to prevent him from quitting.
Sethi accused Mastercard of locking his accounts in his tweet thread, sharing a photo of what appears to be his login screen.
“They may try to discredit me or downplay my contributions. But the fact is globally that our partners, customers and regional teams associate Mastercard [and] NFTs with me,” he said. “When someone in our portfolio has a question on Web3, it will be redirected to me, from the CMO to an analyst.”
Sethi or Mastercard responded immediately Decrypttheir requests for comment.
Mastercard has taken several steps into the blockchain space in the past year. During the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV, Mastercard announced the wiretapping Polygon to launch its Artist Accelerator. The Mastercard Artist Accelerator aims to give musicians and creators the tools to expand into the Web3, including creating 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 at the time of writing, according to the variety website where the coin is hosted.
“If you want to support me, you can give my resignation for 0.023 ETH. A piece of my personal history from the year I jumped,” said Sethi. “Art airdrop for holders in the future as thanks.”
Sethi’s departure from Mastercard comes after he joined the company in August 2020, starting as an analyst in the global bill payment product development team. He would later move to London to become the company’s product manager on NFTs.
By quitting Mastercard, Sethi said, he will lose his work VISA and will work from India until he can find an immigration solution. According to a LinkedIn mailthe former product manager plans to build his own company from scratch instead of joining another firm.
Thanking his Twitter followers for their support, Sethi said he had been working on the Twitter thread for over a year and was relieved to finally be able to share it.
