Congresswoman Maxine Waters, rating member of the Monetary Companies Committee, has initiated an investigation into Meta’s involvement with digital property over monetary stability considerations.
Waters wrote a letter to high Meta executives Mark Zuckerberg and Javier Olivan on Jan. 22, highlighting a collection of trademark purposes that recommend a possible growth into digital forex and blockchain know-how, elevating questions concerning the firm’s intentions and actions on this area.
She has requested clarification on Meta’s intentions concerning web3, digital wallets, and different associated tasks. These inquiries intention to establish the extent of Meta’s ongoing and future involvement in digital property, together with any potential analysis and improvement in stablecoin tasks or partnerships with different stablecoin issuers.
Waters has lengthy been a critic of the crypto trade and believes that the sector needs to be topic to the identical stringent laws as banks, particularly stablecoin issuers.
Trademark purposes
The 5 trademark purposes — filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) in 2022 — cowl a big selection of companies associated to digital property. The purposes embody a various vary of companies, from on-line social networking and relationship companies tailor-made for buyers to downloadable software program for digital forex administration.
The purposes additionally embody provisions for numerous digital asset actions starting from monetary trades and exchanges of assorted types of digital forex to the design and improvement of blockchain-related pc {hardware} and software program.
The submissions have raised considerations, notably given Meta’s previous ventures into digital forex and the following regulatory and public scrutiny.
Regardless of these filings, Meta employees asserted in October 2023 that the corporate is neither conducting nor planning any work on blockchain-based merchandise or stablecoins. Nevertheless, the assertion contradicts the detailed descriptions in Meta’s trademark purposes.
Letter requests
The USPTO course of requires that, following the issuance of a Discover of Allowance (NOA), candidates should file a Assertion of Use or an Extension Request inside six months. This process is essential for sustaining the validity of the trademark software and its related items and companies.
Waters questioned whether or not Meta would file a Assertion of Use or an Extension Request for his or her latest trademark purposes and sought particulars on the extent of Meta’s analysis and improvement in stablecoin tasks, partnerships, and the adoption of distributed ledger know-how in its platforms.
Moreover, she requested if Meta intends to launch a cryptocurrency funds platform and the way its know-how facilitates numerous facets of cryptocurrency dealing with, notably in its Metaverse platform.
Waters’ letter pointed to Meta’s previous endeavors within the digital forex realm, notably the event of the Libra (later rebranded as Diem) cryptocurrency undertaking, as a sign of the corporate’s digital asset ambitions.
The Libra/Diem undertaking was met with vital opposition from regulators and policymakers as a consequence of considerations about privateness, nationwide safety, and the potential affect on international monetary programs. Meta finally bought it off amid the backlash.
Meta’s response to those inquiries will likely be intently watched, because it might considerably affect the regulatory panorama surrounding digital currencies and blockchain know-how. The corporate’s actions and techniques on this evolving area stay a degree of eager curiosity and scrutiny amongst policymakers and trade observers.
