Fidelity Investments Plans NFT Marketplace and Metaverse Services
Fidelity Investments’ metaverse plans reportedly include developing an NFT marketplace.
The financial services corporation has filed trademark applications for a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, metaverse investment services, virtual real estate investing and cryptocurrency trading services in the metaverse, Cointelegraph reported Monday (Dec. 26), citing a tweet by licensed trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis.
#Fidelity has plans for the metaverse!
The company has filed 3 trademark applications covering
NFTs + NFT Marketplaces
Metaverse Investment Services
Virtual Real Estate Investing
Cryptocurrency Trading
... and more!#NFTs #Metaverse #Crypto #Web3 #Defi #Finance pic.twitter.com/op9fg80e7z— Mike Kondoudis (@KondoudisLaw) December 26, 2022
The Fidelity Investments trademark applications were filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Wednesday (Dec. 21), according to the report.
The filings cover a range of services to be offered within virtual worlds, including investment services, payments, crypto trading and management, virtual currency wallets and financial education services, the report said.
Reached for comment, a Fidelity Investments spokesperson told PYMNTS in an email that while it is premature to discuss trademark applications that were just filed, they reinforce the company’s legacy for innovation.
“Fidelity is committed to innovating in how we deliver financial education and service through emerging platforms, whether that’s a Web 2.0 space like Reddit, or Web3 like the metaverse,” the statement said. “In fact, earlier this year, Fidelity launched The Fidelity Stack in Decentraland, and in doing so, became the first brokerage firm to develop an immersive educational experience in the metaverse targeted to U.S. retail investors.”
As PYMNTS reported Nov. 3, Fidelity Investments has displayed a growing interest in digital assets, having set up a waitlist for its customers for Fidelity Crypto, which lets users trade bitcoin and ethereum at no commission, invest in stocks and crypto from the same app and access a learning center to get information to make more informed trades.
Days before that, Fidelity Investments released survey findings that showed that 58% of institutional investors invested in digital assets during the first half of 2022, a six-point increase from the prior year.
“While the markets have faced headwinds in recent months, we believe that digital assets fundamentals remain strong and that the institutionalization of the market over the past several years has positioned it to weather recent events,” Fidelity Digital Assets President Tom Jessop said at the time. “Institutional investors are experienced in managing through cycles, and the largely inherent factors that they cited as appealing in this study will likely remain as the market emerges from this period.”
What’s more, Fidelity Investments said in October that it would hire 100 more workers for its digital assets operations, bringing the headcount of that business to about 500 by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
The division had previously doubled its staff since May.
In September, Fidelity Investments said it was preparing to offer the option to invest in cryptocurrency on some employer-sponsored retirement plans.
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