When it comes to banks, Bank of America and Capital One lead in cryptocurrency investment, with 142 patent assets and 62 patent assets, respectively. TD Bank is in third place with 37 assets. One bank that is not present in the patent space is PNC Bank. The financial services company partnered with Aetna and IBM to form Avaneer Health, a blockchain-based platform for streamlining healthcare. However, neither PNC nor Avaneer have any patents for blockchain or cryptocurrency technologies.

An announcement in August 2021 indicates that PNC is pursuing a partnership strategy rather than investing in its own patents. PNC and Coinbase are partnering on an initiative to enable PNC customers to invest in cryptocurrency. Coinbase has a larger patent portfolio than most other cryptocurrency platforms. The company is following up after a successful IPO by expanding its reach through partnerships that can make use of exclusive intellectual property for cryptographic exchanges. What about PNC? Without its own assets, the bank remains dependent on existing developers in the space. Will PNC invest in its own portfolio to properly rival Bank of America and Capital One? Keep up with Patent Forecast® to be the first to know.