SEALSQ wins EPO patent for hardware-rooted NFT provenance tech
WISeKey subsidiary SEALSQ Corp has been granted a divisional patent by the European Patent Office covering its so-called "Back-to-Physical" NFT technology, which provisions non-fungible tokens directly into tamper-proof semiconductor chips. The patent, EP 4174706 A1, stems from a Swiss priority filing dated October 2021 and forms the intellectual-property backbone of WISe.ART, WISeKey's digital art marketplace. A US application (US 17/514,296) remains pending at the USPTO, and a further EPO divisional is under examination.
The technology creates what SEALSQ describes as a hardware-rooted chain of provenance: rather than linking a physical artwork to a blockchain record held on a third-party server, the NFT is embedded in a secure microcontroller physically associated with the object. WISeKey says this approach makes the authenticity guarantee independent of any single platform remaining operational, addressing a known fragility of software-only NFT schemes.
What the patent covers
The EPO grant covers the core method by which an NFT is provisioned into a tamper-proof chip to create a unique cryptographic identity permanently embedded at the silicon level. SEALSQ couples this with post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, the company says, so that provenance records remain verifiable even as quantum-computing capabilities mature. WISeKey has deployed more than 1.6 billion microchips across IoT sectors, giving SEALSQ an existing semiconductor manufacturing and PKI infrastructure on which WISe.ART sits.
Carlos Moreira, founder and chief executive of WISeKey, said: "For the first time, collectors, institutions, and artists have access to provenance that is not only blockchain-recorded but silicon-sealed, post-quantum secured, and independently verifiable without any centralised authority."
The company also references a Digital Product Passport framework it says will travel with certified artworks through auction, estate transfer, and resale, recording ownership history, exhibition records, and valuation events. WISeKey claims this aligns with emerging EU regulations mandating Digital Product Passports across high-value industries, though it did not cite a specific regulation or implementation date.
Market context and competitive landscape
The global art market transacts roughly $65 billion annually, according to figures cited in WISeKey's release, and authentication fraud remains a persistent commercial and legal problem. Blockchain-based provenance services have attracted a range of startups and established players: Artory, Verisart, and Chronicled have each pursued digital certificate models, though none has publicly disclosed a hardware-embedded approach comparable to SEALSQ's patent claims. The NFT market, after its 2021-2022 peak, has contracted sharply in trading volumes, making enterprise provenance use cases rather than speculative collectibles the more credible near-term commercial opportunity.
SEALSQ's post-quantum angle is notable given the broader industry context. NIST finalised its first set of post-quantum cryptography standards in 2024, and the EU's NIS2 directive creates incentive for high-value industries to upgrade cryptographic infrastructure ahead of quantum-computing timelines. An art-world application is niche, but the same Back-to-Physical IP could be licensed across luxury goods, pharmaceuticals, and defence components, each of which faces its own provenance and anti-counterfeiting requirements. WISeKey explicitly flags this licensing opportunity in the release, though it named no commercial licensees and disclosed no revenue figures.
WISe.ART transactions are denominated in the platform's native $QAIT utility token, which introduces a further layer of commercial risk: token liquidity and regulatory classification of utility tokens vary significantly across EU member states and remain unsettled under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which entered full application in December 2024. Prospective institutional buyers will want clarity on the token's legal status before committing catalogues to the platform.