Wells Fargo (WFC), one of the largest US banks overseeing $1.7 trillion in assets, has filed a trademark application for a new digital asset-focused platform branded as WFUSD, signaling the bank’s push deeper into crypto and blockchain.
According to a Tuesday filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), WFUSD will offer services such as “processing cryptocurrency payments,” “executing trades in digital assets,” and “asset tokenization software services,” among other things.
The move mirrors global bank JPMorgan’s similar digital asset-related trademark filing last year for “JPMD.” It heralded the launch of a permissioned USD deposit token under the same name on Base, the layer-2 network built on Ethereum.
In Wells Fargo’s case, the “WFUSD” trademark may suggest that the offering is a tokenized deposit or stablecoin.
The bank did not return requests for comment by press time.
The bank’s filing comes as traditional financial institutions and global banks increasingly embrace digital assets and explore tokenized assets and stablecoins. Last May, the Wall Street Journal reported that several US banks, including Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ), Bank of America ( BAC ), and Citigroup ( C ) held early discussions to jointly launch a stablecoin.
In particular, Wells Fargo revealed plans in 2019 to pilot an internal settlement service called Wells Fargo Digital Cash that runs on the bank’s own DLT (distributed ledger technology) platform.
