Western Union is seemingly preparing to delve deeper into crypto

The crypto industry has been suffering losses for nearly a full year now, and while the value of coins has gone down quite a bit from November 2021 levels, the development and adoption are progressing at a rapid pace. Over the years, plenty of financial services from the traditional finance sector were claiming that crypto is a scam, doomed to fail and that they would not touch it, which is slowly starting to change.

Banks are getting more and more involved, services like PayPal now have their own crypto section, and Western Union seems to be turning back to crypto after past failed attempts to get involved, judging by the recently filed trademark applications.

New trademark applications reveal the company’s potential plans

According to the applications, the company seems to be making new attempts to enter deeper into the crypto market. So far, it has had limited success, but this might start to change in the near future.

The trademark applications were filed on October 18th, and they reveal that Western Union wishes to launch a number of crypto-related services and applications. The trademark applications were first pointed out by Mike Kondoudis, a trademark attorney, who posted his findings on Twitter. There are three trademark applications in total. Some examples include managing wallets, creating an exchange for digital assets and commodities derivatives, and even token issuance, brokerage, and insurance.

Western Union is known throughout the world as a go-to service for cross-border remittance, and the company has been interested in cryptocurrencies for a long time now. It entered a partnership with Ripple long before other major names, all the way back in 2015, seeking to use its technology to secure faster and cheaper payments. However, the two companies never moved beyond the test phase, and after three years, Western Union said that crypto payments would not become a part of its service anytime soon.

Western Union seems determined to enter the crypto industry

Despite this setback, the company did continue to look into wallets, and it partnered with a blockchain platform, Coins.ph, primarily to enhance its services in the Philippines. Today, however, the remittance market is a lot more competitive than it was back then. Coinbase, the largest US crypto exchange, seems to be targeting Mexico, and it is not the only one since this is the world’s second-largest remittance market.

So, Western Union has found itself in a situation where it seeks to offer remittance services combined with crypto once again. The company likely has no choice, and if it wishes to remain relevant and competitive, it will have to adapt to the current changes in financial markets.

Judging by the trademark applications, it might even issue its own token before long. But, given how competitive and crowded the market is getting, it will still have a hard time maintaining dominance, even if it manages to go crypto this time around.

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