Mastercard Files For Their Metaverse Trademarks, Prepares For Web3

Mastercard is making its first moves in the web3 space, after filing for several metaverse trademarks. This comes after Visa and AmEx submitted their SEC filings. These filings from Mastercard included “Mastercard” and the company’s “circles logo”.

Mastercard in web3 and the Metaverse

Mastercard has finally made its move into the metaverse, filing for fifteen metaverse-related trademark applications to register brand assets and assure they were the first to use them in the metaverse and web3 space. This move has indicated the company’s clear plans to properly step into the space. The possibilities are endless for what Mastercard could do.

Over the coming months, we should see what the company is planning, however, there is no proper information out yet about what will happen.

This recent move by Mastercard is one of many by big-time financial companies, including some of their big competitors, into the metaverse.

Competitors’ Movements

Visa has been huge in the metaverse, NFTs and the wider web3 space. From purchasing a Cryptopunk to registering copyright filing of their own. Despite the fact that Visa saw 4.5x fewer individual transactions than the Ethereum blockchain in 2021, the company is all in on the industry as a whole. Visa also announced an initiative to help artists navigate web3 in the last few weeks,

Further than this, Amex’s CEO has also hinted at exploring ways to allow credit card holders to redeem points for crypto. This was in January of this year, and we’ve not heard much since. More recently, the company made trademark filings of their own, along with Visa and Mastercard, of course.

Finally, investment bank, JP Morgan ventured into Decentraland with their opening of a virtual lounge.

In 2020, the number of NFT trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office was three. In 2021 that number jumped to 421, and the growth is surely set to continue in 2022.