This vending machine in New York is the very first to sell NFTs

The digital world is slowly crossing over with real life, and while the process will take many years, it will be done in incremental steps.

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Solana-based NFT marketplace Neon recently received a $3 million seed round last month to launch what could be considered as an "incremental step", the very first NFT vending machines. The marketplace rolled out the first NFT vending machine on 29 John St in Manhattan, New York, in December 2021, but now reports indicate that the vending machine is ready for purchases and is open 24 hours a day. The NFT vending machine will allow buyers to purchase Solana NFTs with US dollars.

Jordan Birnholtz, the co-founder and CMO of Neon, spoke to Decrypt and said that he came up with the idea of selling NFTs via a vending machine halfway through 2021 and thought "that there is literally no simpler way to buy something than a vending machine". Additionally, Birnholtz explains that the vending machines were created to showcase how simple it is to purchase an NFT and how powerful of a tool they can be to support digital artists.

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The vending machine supports payments using; Visa, Mastercard, Samsung Pay, or Apple Pay.

"Neon started with fiat because our mission is unique, to bring digital art and collecting to the largest possible audience," Birnholtz said.

"We are expanding our vending machines to a handful of cities this summer. Having ironed out the technical challenges in dispensing and redeeming NFTs, we're inviting artists and creators to feature their NFTs in our machines," Birnholtz said