Meta Needs To Provide Clarity Soon According To Maxine Waters

Meta Platforms Inc is under investigation by US lawmakers regarding its five outstanding trademark applications related to cryptocurrencies. On January 22nd, Maxine Waters, a member of the US House Financial Services Committee, wrote a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Javier Olivan expressing concerns about the open cryptocurrency and blockchain-oriented trademark applications filed by the company in March 2022.

Renewed Interest

Waters raised apprehensions about the implications of these applications, referencing ongoing interest by Meta in expanding its presence in the digital asset sector. This contradicts the initial statement that Meta made to the Democratic Financial Services Committee in October 2023, where it claimed to have no active digital asset projects.

Moreover, thanks to its initial filings on March 18th, 2022, the application submissions by Meta appear to represent a continued intention to expand the involvement of the company in the digital assets ecosystem.

Clarity Is Needed

Waters posed questions about the plans that Meta has for a crypto-supporting payments platform and how its technology facilitates various aspects of cryptocurrencies within its platforms, including the Metaverse. Despite the abandonment of earlier plans for a stablecoin, Diem, and a digital wallet, Novi, due to legislative challenges, the new trademark applications indicate renewed interest by Meta in services related to crypto and blockchain assets trading, exchange, payments, transfers, wallets, and associated hardware and software infrastructure.

Meta is required to respond to the first Notice of Allowance (NOA) issued in August 2023 by February 15th and the most recent NOA issued in January by July 16th. Waters has requested Meta to provide details of its responses to these NOAs, along with its plans for Web3, cryptocurrency, or digital wallet initiatives, including any intentions to launch a cryptocurrency payments platform.