Western Union Trademark Filings Signal Crypto, Web3 Exploration

Until now, Western Union has been relatively cautious about entering blockchain technology.

In December 2018, former Western Union Global Money Transfer president Odilon Almeida said adding cryptocurrencies as a customer option would be a big reach, as digital assets had yet to master governance, compliance and volatility and receive global acceptance.

Almeida added: “Cryptocurrency can become yet another option for a way of exchanging assets between people and countries. If that happens, we will be ready to launch.”

It seems that now, four years later, the growing use of blockchain technology – along with increased competition in the international money transfer space – has finally pushed the financial giant to tap into crypto markets.

Earlier this year, centralized crypto exchange Coinbase had begun testing a remittance program for recipients in Mexico, challenging the market dominated by Western Union.

Coinbase claimed its services were significantly cheaper than traditional cross-border payments and wanted to expand its services globally to the world’s 1.7 billion sub-banks.

Nevertheless, Western Union remains one of the largest players in the global money transfer industry, and Almeida has maintained the belief that “[Western Union is] better positioned to benefit from the cryptocurrency movement in the long term than any startup.”

“Western Union is already better equipped to address such variables because it already moves money across 130 currencies and devotes significant resources to all three of these challenges,” he said.

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