Puerto Rico-based FV Bank is an online-only financial institution that combines traditional banking services with digital asset management. The company, which was founded in 2018, raised $8M in Series A funding in August 2021. That same month, a patent application filed by the founders for tokenized assets backed by government bonds published. The application addresses using cryptocurrency for government bonds and assessing associated risk. One of the challenges of decentralized finance and cryptocurrency banking is security, since crypto isn’t a fiat currency. FV Bank’s activity shows it is trying to solve these issues in order to advance adoption. In addition to filing its own application, FV Bank is working with Fireblocks, a digital asset custody platform that has a patent application for securing crypto-asset transactions using distributed wallet keys. Fireblocks raised $310M in Series D for a total valuation of $2.2B. While the funding indicates that digital security is important to the cryptocurrency world, these two companies may need to increase their patent activity to really break through the market. There is still room in the sector, but they may have to act quickly to stand out from companies like Securrency. Or perhaps another partnership is in order? Securrency’s patent portfolio focuses on compliance, which could complement FV Bank’s goal of maintaining traditional banking systems. FV Bank is the first bank in Puerto Rico to have secured a digital asset custody license from the Department of Treasury. Keep up with Patent Forecast® to stay on top of the latest developments in Cryptocurrency.