Meta Platforms, beforehand generally known as Facebook, is beneath scrutiny from Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Chair of the House Financial Services Committee. Despite earlier setbacks and assurances of halted progress in digital foreign money, Meta seems to be quietly advancing its involvement within the digital belongings trade. This follows Waters’ inquiry into Meta’s latest actions regarding cryptocurrency and blockchain expertise.
Trademark Applications Raise Questions
Central to Waters’ concerns are 5 trademark purposes filed by Meta with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). These purposes embody a variety of companies, from social networking to cryptocurrency buying and selling, hinting at Meta’s continued curiosity in integrating digital currencies into their platforms. This transfer is a shock, given Meta’s earlier communication with the Financial Services Committee, which indicated a cessation of all digital asset-related endeavors.
Meta’s journey into digital foreign money has been fraught with regulatory hurdles. Their preliminary try with the Libra (later renamed Diem) challenge in 2019 was met with important pushback from regulators and lawmakers, together with Waters.
The challenge, which aimed to introduce a stablecoin tied to the corporate, raised issues over privateness, safety, and the potential for widespread monetary disruption. Despite its eventual dissolution and sale to Silvergate Bank, Meta’s present actions counsel a renewed, albeit discreet, curiosity within the digital foreign money panorama.
Maxine Waters Demands Clarification
In her letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Javier Olivan, Waters seeks readability on the corporate’s intentions and plans regarding digital currencies. Her inquiry addresses explicitly the obvious contradiction between Meta’s earlier communications and their ongoing trademark purposes. Waters’ focus isn’t just on the character of those tasks but in addition on their broader implications within the absence of a complete federal framework for digital asset regulation.
Waters’ scrutiny of Meta is an element of a bigger narrative regarding Big Tech’s foray into the digital foreign money sector. Her earlier inquiries into corporations like PayPal reveal a rising concern amongst legislators over the unchecked growth of main expertise corporations into the monetary area. The lack of a stable regulatory framework additional complicates these ventures, posing questions on client safety, privateness, and the general stability of the monetary system.
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