Financial giants HSBC and Fidelity trademark Metaverse, NFT and crypto services

Despite the market downturn, the metaverse, nft, and cryptocurrencies are still issues that attract attention from financial corporations.

Banking giant HSBC has filed two crypto-related trademark applications for its name and logo with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). HSBC’s apps show the bank’s plans for a number of digital products and services, including those related to trading and transferring virtual currencies.

HSBC’s crypto-related trademark applications were filed on December 15; their serial numbers are 97718803 and 97718583. The bank has described a wide range of products and services in its applications, including sending, receiving, converting and storing digital currency.

The trademark applications also detail a number of metaverse-related products and services, such as “facilitating secure electronic payment transactions within the metaverse”, “providing banking services in the metaverse” and “provides processing of virtual credit cards, virtual debit cards, virtual prepaid cards and virtual payment card transactions in the metaverse.” In addition, there are a number of NFT services, such as “NFT-authenticated downloadable digital files.”

HSBC joined the metaverse by partnering with blockchain gaming platform The Sandbox in March. However, HSBC Group CEO Noel Quinn said in September that cryptocurrencies are not in the bank’s future roadmap.

In addition to HSBC, US financial magnate Fidelity Investments has also recently submitted three trademark applications related to providing services in the metaverse and virtual reality spaces. The application also mentions NFT and marketplace, virtual real estate investment, cryptocurrency trading and metaverse investment service.

Over the years, the world’s leading multinational financial services group has consistently embraced the cryptocurrency space more than most. In June of this year, Fidelity Digital Assets – a subsidiary of Fidelity began implementing ETH custody and trading for giants. Two months later, the wealth management giant added a BTC investment channel for customers through a personal retirement fund.

An increasing number of large corporations and financial services institutions are filing for trademarks covering a variety of digital currencies as well as metaverse products and services. Visa, Paypal and Western Union have filed for trademarks related to cryptocurrencies since October. Last month, JPMorgan Chase was granted a wallet trademark covering various payment services and virtual currencies.