On Sunday, CNBC reported that the world’s largest retailer – Walmart (NYSE:) – filed seven applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office in December. Those filings outlined Walmart’s plans to launch its own cryptocurrency, NFTs, possible payment system, crypto financial services, and more.

One of the applications specifically mentions Walmart’s plans to create and sell virtual goods such as electronics, home decor, toys, sporting goods, and personal care products. These digital products that are identical to physical items would be most useful in an augmented or virtual reality setting like the metaverse.

Additionally, an excerpt from one of the applications had this language regarding Walmart’s proprietary software specifically designed to manage blockchain related coding applications, “Downloadable software for use in managing portfolios of digital currency, virtual currency, cryptocurrency, digital and blockchain assets, digitized assets, digital tokens, crypto tokens, and utility tokens, downloadable software for electronic wallet services, downloadable e-wallets.”

Although the final uses of these patent applications remain unclear, this blurb describes many of the most common functions associated with crypto trading and cryptocurrency financial services.

A Walmart demonstration video showing a customer shopping from a remote location using a virtual reality headset and Walmart’s shopping assistant has been circulating online since five years ago. The video is a bit disconcerting and oddly isolating, but it fleshes out a metaverse vision that Walmart had years ago — that is being further finetuned with these patent applications. The video also mentioned automated payments using “Walmart Pay” and automated age verification, which could soon occur via a non-fungible token application on the blockchain.

This marks the retailer’s latest exploration into crypto. A beta testing was launched by the big-box global retailer in October. It allowed customers to use Coinstar kiosks at some U.S. shops. Pilot program used 200 Coinstar machines, which allowed users to convert coin into money or bill.

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