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 called WFUSD, signaling the bank is delving deeper into cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
According to a Tuesday filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), WFUSD would offer services such as “cryptocurrency payment processing,” “execution of digital asset transactions,” and “software services for asset tokenization,” among others.
The move mirrors global bank JPMorgan’s similar digital asset-related trademark application last year for “JPMD.” That heralded the launch of a sanctioned USD deposit token of the same name on Base, the layer 2 network built on top of Ethereum.
In the case of Wells Fargo, the “WFUSD” marking may indicate that the offering is a tokenized deposit or stablecoin.
At press time, the bank did not respond to requests for comment.
The bank’s filing comes as traditional financial institutions and global banks increasingly embrace digital assets, exploring 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), were in early-stage talks to jointly launch a stablecoin.
Notably, Wells Fargo revealed plans in 2019 to pilot an internal settlement service called Wells Fargo Digital Cash, which runs on the bank’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform.
