Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the Rating Member of the US Home Monetary Providers Committee, questions Meta Platforms, Inc. (previously Fb) relating to its trademark functions indicative of a possible enlargement within the digital property ecosystem.
Waters’ issues, conveyed in a letter dated January 22, 2024, to Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Javier Olivan, stem from 5 trademark functions filed by Meta on March 18, 2022. Regardless of Meta’s assertion on October 12, 2023, that the corporate was not partaking in any digital property work, these functions counsel in any other case. The committee is urgent Meta for readability on any ongoing or deliberate blockchain or crypto-related tasks.
The trademark functions cowl a spread of providers within the crypto and blockchain sphere, together with buying and selling, change, funds, transfers, and the related {hardware} and software program infrastructure. A Discover of Allowance (NOA) for every submitting signifies Meta’s functions meet registration necessities. Meta should now file a press release of use or request an extension inside six months of the NOA issuance dates, which vary from August 2023 to January 2024.
This inquiry is not Maxine Waters’ first involvement in scrutinizing tech giants’ forays into the digital property sector. In 2019, Waters was vocal in her issues over Meta’s Libra (later Diem) stablecoin undertaking. Meta had introduced its plans to develop the cryptocurrency and a corresponding digital pockets, Calibra. Nonetheless, the undertaking confronted vital backlash from lawmakers and regulators, resulting in its eventual discontinuation and the sale of its property to Silvergate Financial institution in January 2022.
Waters’ letter questions the extent of Meta’s involvement in digital property, together with any plans to launch a crypto funds platform, the corporate’s analysis into stablecoins, partnerships with stablecoin tasks, and the adoption of distributed ledger expertise (DLT). The congresswoman is especially involved concerning the implications of massive tech corporations like Meta coming into the digital property house, given their entry to huge quantities of consumer information and the shortage of a federal framework for regulating such ventures.
Within the broader context, Meta’s involvement in digital property displays a rising development amongst tech giants exploring blockchain and cryptocurrency as potential new enterprise avenues. Nonetheless, this enlargement raises crucial questions on consumer privateness, information safety, regulatory compliance, and the affect on conventional monetary programs.
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