Wells Fargo (WFC), one of the largest U.S. banks overseeing $1.7 trillion in assets, has filed a trademark application for a new digital asset-focused platform under the WFUSD brand, signaling that the bank is moving deeper into crypto and blockchain.
According to a filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Tuesday, WFUSD would offer services such as “cryptocurrency payment processing,” “executing digital asset transactions,” and “services including asset tokenization software,” among others.
The move mirrors global bank JPMorgan’s filing of a similar digital asset-related trademark last year for “JPMD.” This foreshadowed the launch of a USD-permissioned deposit token under the same name on Base, the layer 2 network built on Ethereum.
In the case of Wells Fargo, the “WFUSD” branding may imply that the offering is a token deposit or stablecoin.
The bank did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.
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), had held preliminary discussions to jointly launch a stablecoin.
Notably, Wells Fargo in 2019 revealed plans to pilot an internal settlement service called Wells Fargo Digital Cash, running on the bank’s own distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform.
