Editing by Nathaniel Cajuday

Along with the other major entities worldwide that are venturing into the new technology brought by blockchain, financial services providers Fidelity and HSBC confirmed that they are entering the metaverse next year. 

In separate announcements, the two firms revealed that they have filed trademark applications, indicating further plans for their metaverse ventures.

Fidelity

Mike Kondoudis, a licensed trademark attorney, verified the information last December 27 that Fidelity Investments has filed three crypto trademark applications that cover metaverse technologies and services, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and NFT marketplaces, virtual land, and cryptocurrency trading.

He also added that one of the applications merely focuses on digital media and NFTs, while the second is the provision of an online marketplace for the sale of NFTs. Then the third one includes mutual fund investment services, retirement fund investment services, investment management, financial planning, and electronic bill payment in the Metaverse and other virtual worlds.

Fidelity is a financial firm that provides financial planning, advice, and educational resources. It is also one of America’s largest pension providers; in April, it allowed investors to include Bitcoin in their pension plans. Then, in November, their crypto unit, Fidelity Digital Assets, allowed its retail clients to invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum. 

Aside from these, Fidelity also built a Decentraland offering interactive experiences called “The Fidelity Stack” last April. It also launched the Fidelity Metaverse ETF that same month to provide investors access to the metaverse.

HSBC

On the other hand, British multinational universal bank HSBC, one of the world’s largest international banking and financial services providers, filed trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a variety of web3-related uses. 

According to Kondoudis, HSBC had applied for a trademark to exchange and transfer virtual currencies and NFTs, claiming that the trademark application looks forward to allowing HSBC to provide metaverse-related products and services, such as providing secure payment transactions via electronic means in the metaverse, facilitating banking services in the metaverse, and arranging the processing of virtual credit cards, virtual debit cards, virtual prepaid cards, and virtual payment card transactions in the metaverse. 

While for its NFT venture, the bank aims to provide a number of services, such as downloading authenticated digital files. 

In addition, HSBC also filed trademark applications under IC 041 and IC 042—a trademark for providing entertainment services where users can interact in a recreational setting and build online communities. 

Last March, the bank announced its partnership with decentralized gaming virtual world The Sandbox to “open up a host of opportunities for virtual communities across the world to engage with global financial services providers and sports communities in The Sandbox metaverse.”

This article is published on BitPinas: Two Traditional Financial Services Firms Announce Metaverse Entry Through Filing Trademark Applications

Image source: “HSBC London” by Håkan Dahlström is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Disclaimer: BitPinas articles and its external content are not financial advice. The team serves to deliver independent, unbiased news to provide information for Philippine-crypto and beyond.

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Filed under: Bitcoin - @ January 1, 2023 4:00 am