American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) — the world's second-largest payment processor — is showing an interest in the metaverse and non-fungible token (NFT) technologies.
What Happened: American Express filed trademark applications relevant for NFT and metaverse applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on March 9, as indicated in a correspondence with USPTO-licensed trademark attorney Michael Kondoudis.
The seven trademarks (serial numbers: 97302767, 97302817, 97302865, 97302893, 97302955, 97303042, 97303060) show two logos for American Express and one each for AMEX, the exclusive luxury payment brand Centurion, the Centurion logo, Membership Rewards and the Shop Small initiative.
Among other things, the applications mention being related to digital wallet software for customers, so the company can provide "rewards that can be credited to their accounts in the metaverse and other virtual worlds" and "e-commerce software to allow users to perform electronic business transactions in the metaverse and other virtual worlds; Digital media, namely, non-fungible tokens."
The trademarks could also be utilized for promoting the use of cards in the metaverse and for NFTs, assistance with electronic money transfers in the metaverse and metaverse banking services, virtual currency exchange, cryptocurrency exchange services and metaverse travel agencies.
The news follows American Express CEO Stephen Squeri saying the company is looking to give customers "ways, potentially, to redeem your membership rewards points, but I don’t think you’re going to see an American Express card linked to cryptocurrency anytime soon" in late January.
Photo: Courtesy of The.Comedian on Flickr
