Quick take:
- The Chicago Board Options Exchange is following the NYSE on the NFT bandwagon.
- The options exchange company has filed a trademark application for CBOE DIGITAL to offer NFTs and crypto services.
- The Chicago-based organisation plans to launch NFT-based digital assets and marketplaces.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange has become the latest mainstream financial organisation to jump on the NFT train. The company has filed a trademark application for CBOE DIGITAL to offer non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrency services.
According to the filing, the CBOE plans to offer digital assets like NFTs, as well as, marketplaces and exchanges. The filing comes barely two months after the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) filed a trademark application for an NFT marketplace.
The filing was submitted to the United States Patents and Trademarks Office on April 14 and indicates an intention by the CBOE to expand to various virtual goods and digital financial services amid the NFT craze.
According to intellectual property attorney, Mike Kondoudis, the CBOE is taking measures to ensure that it extends its market-leading trading services into the metaverse.
The metaverse is a 3D virtual space of immersive interconnected worlds where people engage using 3D avatars by participating in virtual events, gaming and commerce activities.
The CBOE’s entry into NFTs will put it in rivalry with both mainstream financial market players that have filed trademarks for similar products, as well as, crypto and NFT service providers that are already thriving in the digital assets space.
OpenSea the world’s largest NFT marketplace is also looking to expand its product offerings after filing a trademark application for NFT minting, crypto and digital currency wallets, as well as, digital and virtual currency trading, among others.
According to Kondoudis, the filings may also indicate a move by the NFT marketplace to protect its brand amid the increasing competition and the shift to the metaverse.
“These filings are a logical step to protect the OpenSea brand as it moves to solidify its position as a leading provider of cryptocurrency and NFT trading services today and in the coming virtual economy of the Metaverse,” he wrote.
The IP attorney thinks the company may be planning to widen its participation in the digital economy.
Leading cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, ByBit, Coinbase, FTX and now Okcoin have all rolled out NFT services, therefore, it would be logical for OpenSea to launch a cryptocurrency exchange service in order to compete with the new entrants on equal footing.
According to data compiled by Kondoudis, NFT trademark applications have continued to rise since the start of the year, increasing from 596 in January 2022, to 722, in February and 1,023 in March.
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