Despite refusals by the Bank of America Corp to allow its customers to invest in cryptocurrency, the bank reportedly now owns more blockchain patents than every other business out there. Blockchain is the technology currently used to verify and record bitcoin trades.

According to a new study undertaken by the American law firm EnvisionIP, which undertakes research into intellectual property, the bank currently owns 43% of the blockchain patents.

Maulin Shah, who currently works as a lead attorney at EnvisionIP, said in a recent interview that the tech industry had not rushed to invest in the blockchain technology to the same extent that organisations within the finance industry had.

The study also unearthed that, out of the 478 official owners of blockchain patents, Mastercard Inc and the International Business Machines Corp, had both come in second on the list. Both companies currently possess 27% of the blockchain patents which have been issued.

The research paper also showed that 59% of blockchain patents were owned by companies that specialised in the area, while the financial services industry owned 20% of blockchain patents. In addition to this, the study also found that traditional tech companies owned 13% of blockchain patents. 8% of the patents are reportedly owned by unspecified others.