It signals the exchange’s intention to create its own NFT marketplace.
The NYSE filed a patent within the last week with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This suggests that the exchange may be making its first’metaverse” move. Let’s take a look at the early reports and see what this could mean for the future.
New York, New York
According to USPTO filings, the New York Stock Exchange has registered “NYSE” to allow the use of several blockchain- and crypto-adjacent products and services. This includes areas such as “virtual reality” and “augmented reality”, non-fungible tokens and/or NFTs, as well online marketplaces.
According to reports, the exchange may be interested in offering “downloadable virtual goods” and could also be seeking to establish “authentication of data in NFTs using Blockchain technology.”
This is the latest twist in an unexpected path of stock exchange/NFT crossovers. The NYSE issued six commemorative NFTs last – to celebrate major public listings in a series called “First Trade.”
The “State” Of Affairs
The New York Stock Exchange, by market capital, is the largest stock exchange in the world. It has average trading volumes of hundreds of billions of US dollars per day.
Unlike the April NFT announcement, this latest effort from the NYSE signals a larger and more substantial investment in the blockchain space. While details are still unclear, it appears that the exchange will be creating a fully-fledged NFT marketplace. This announcement comes at a moment when OpenSea is becoming more competitive. Coinbase is still weeks away from their NFT marketplace. LooksRare, a growing marketplace, has been more prominently mentioned in recent weeks (despite a rough week). These are just two examples of many.
The trademark application also covers APIs and “cryptocurrency trade services”. This could be the first sign that the NYSE is moving to support crypto trading more widely. The exchange has only minimal U.S. regulation. However, innovation is not known to be slow. Although’metaverse” is the current “flavor”, the New York Stock Exchange’s use of blockchain APIs for stock tracking and the adoption of NFTs at an even greater level is not something to be dismissed.
