According to a report by Cointelegraph, the US House Financial Services Committee is pressuring social media giant Meta to disclose any blockchain or cryptocurrency-related projects. Since 2022, the company has had five trademark applications related to cryptocurrency and blockchain that are still pending.
In a letter to Meta’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan on January 22, senior committee member Maxine Waters stated that these trademark applications, submitted on March 18, 2022, “seem to represent the company’s continued intention to expand its involvement in the digital asset ecosystem.”
Waters stated that despite Meta’s statement to Democratic members of the Financial Services Committee in October 2023 that “Meta does not have any ongoing digital asset work,” these applications indicate that Meta is indeed engaged in digital asset work.
The reported trademark applications involve various services related to cryptocurrency and “blockchain assets” trading, exchange, payment, transfer, wallet, as well as related hardware and software infrastructure. Notices of approval (NOA), which are documents explaining that a filed application meets registration requirements, have been sent to Meta for each application, and the company must submit a statement within 6 months to indicate its intent to use the trademark or request a 6-month extension.
Meta has until February 15 to respond to the first NOA issued on August 15, 2023. The latest NOA was issued on January 16, which means the company must respond by July 16.
Waters inquired about how Meta plans to respond to the NOAs, whether it intends to launch any Web3, cryptocurrency, or digital wallet projects, and whether it will introduce a cryptocurrency payment platform. She also asked about Meta’s research on stablecoins or collaboration with stablecoin projects, whether it is seeking to adopt distributed ledger technology (DLT), and how its technology can enable cryptocurrency-related functionalities in the metaverse.
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