Walmart, one of the largest retailers in the world, is getting ready to create their own NFT (Non-Fungible-Token) collection and might be getting into the metaverse. This was made very obvious by a large amount of cryptocurrency and NFT-related keywords found in their recent U.S. Patents and Trademark Office trademark fillings (USPTO).
Many people thought this was a sign that Walmart is getting into the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. This is completely true, what is interesting is that this information remained largely silent until CNBC wrote an article about it this Sunday.
Walmart is one of the largest retailers in the world, with over 11,000 stores in 28 countries and a revenue of well over $500 billion. They might become a major player in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. On December 30, 2022, 7 trademark filings were made on USPTO that contain cryptocurrency keywords.
Some of their filings can be found here, here, here and here.
The information was first reported by CNBC.
One specific filing describes downloadable software that can leverage digital currencies and things like augmented reality. Very interesting. This might be a sign that they are looking into creating their own cryptocurrency, I'd love to see something like "Walmart Coin" or "Walmart NFT Marketplace". This would obviously be a huge competitor to marketplaces like Rarible & Opensea and also current coins like Ethereum and Bitcoin. I'd actually love to see something like that happen in the future on the metaverse, It would also be a major step forward for the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies in the mainstream. It could also indicate that they will soon accept crypto as a form of payment in the metaverse or a digital marketplace in virtual reality where you can buy Digital Goods & Property like Non-Fungible-Tokens (NFTs).
This is a very big move for such a large company, and it will be interesting to see what else they might do in this space. I believe that in the future, a lot of large companies will get into the crypto space simply because it makes too much sense not to.