Facebook had to mourn the stablecoin DIEM, but Meta seems to want to go further and further into cryptocurrencies. The company has indeed filed trademark applications that reveal its new crypto ambitions.
Meta’s cryptocurrency exchange is taking its marks
Meta filed five trademark applications in the United States on May 13, 2022, for its Meta Pay platform.
Meta had purchased the domain name MetaPay.com for $60 million, from South Dakota-based MetaBank. So this trademark application seems to be a logical extension of that transaction.
Meta Pay would provide “financial transaction processing services”. It would allow “commercial transactions” and offer “secure payment options”.
Meta Pay: trademark filing for Meta’s crypto payment service.
Published by Josh Gerben – Source: Twitter
Meta Pay would additionally offer the services of an exchange for trading:
“of digital currency, virtual currency, cryptocurrencies, digital assets and blockchain, digitized assets, digital tokens, crypto tokens and utility tokens.”
Meta Pay could additionally offer digital asset investment and lending services.
Rebranding in 3.0 mode for Facebook Pay
Although the cryptocurrency, blockchain, metaverse, and NFT craze is recent, Stephane Kasriel noted in his May 11, 2022 Medium post that Meta has been “in the payments business since 2009.”
Stephane Kasriel holds the position of leading commerce & financial technologies at Meta. Meta Pay is nothing more than a rebranding of Facebook Pay, plus a deeper dive into cryptocurrencies. 160 countries and 55 currencies reportedly use Meta’s platforms to make payments:
“This includes person-to-person, business-to-business and business-to-consumer payments.”
Stephane Kasriel said Meta was looking to “further simplify the payment experience” on its platforms. This simplification would aim to bring the “benefits of interoperability in the metaverse” to individuals and businesses.
Stephane Kasriel mentioned the idea of a “single wallet that people can use to represent who they are, what they own and how they pay.” However, this wallet is “still in the very early stages of development” at the moment.
How far will Meta go in its ambitions to conquer the web3? Instagram could soon integrate Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) NFTs. While Meta Pay could allow Meta’s metaverse users to make payments in this virtual world.
