Stephanie Douse 
With its recent U.S. patent and trademark office filings, payments giant American Express may be carving a niche for itself in the metaverse and also embracing Web3 technologies.
American Express, the second-largest payments processor in the world, has filed seven trademark applications related to virtual services and its distinctive Centurion logo, following banking peers JP Morgan, Visa, and Mastercard in looking into Web3 applications of its IP.
About the metaverse trademark applications
American Express may expand its footprint in the metaverse, a future vision of the Internet that might be more immersive by using virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets, according to US Patent and Trademark Office papers dated March 9.
American Express has requested trademarks on software for credit cards, travel, concierge services, a virtual environment for amusement and entertainment, and an NFT marketplace, according to reports.
Plans to offer wallet services for digital and blockchain assets, virtual currency exchange and a digitized and utility token trading service are all included in the documents.
Financial institutions embracing blockchain technololgy
While some major banks have been wary of bitcoin, others have embraced blockchain-based technologies.
“Over the last 60 years, Visa has built a collection of historic commerce artefacts – Today, as we enter a new era of NFT-commerce, Visa welcomes CryptoPunk #7610 to our collection,” Visa tweeted last year after paying 49.5 ETH (around $165,000 at the time) for a CryptoPunk, a series of 10,000 pixelated avatars.
Last summer, American Express began dabbling in NFTs, offering cardholders a limited run of 14 digital collectibles featuring music artist SZA for $100 each.
JP Morgan created Onyx Louge, a virtual lounge in Decentraland, just last month, describing the metaverse as a “$1 trillion opportunity.”