Wells Fargo (WFC), one of the largest U.S. banks with $1.7 trillion in assets under management, has filed a trademark application for a new digital asset platform called WFUSD, signaling that the bank is pushing deeper into the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.
According to documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Tuesday, WFUSD will provide services such as “cryptocurrency payment processing,” “execution of digital asset transactions,” and “asset tokenization software services.”
The move echoes what global bank JPMorgan Chase did last year when it filed a similar digital asset-related trademark called “JPMD.” This heralds the launch of a licensed USD deposit token of the same name on the Ethereum-based layer 2 network Base.
In the case of Wells Fargo, the “WFUSD” trademark may suggest that the product is a tokenized deposit or stablecoin.
The bank had not responded to a request for comment as of press time.
The bank’s filing comes as traditional financial institutions and global banks increasingly embrace digital assets, exploring tokenized assets and stablecoins. In May last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that several U.S. banks, including Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C), were in early discussions about jointly launching stablecoins.
Notably, Wells Fargo unveiled plans in 2019 to pilot an in-house settlement service called Wells Fargo Digital Cash, which would run on the bank’s own distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform.
