Meta Inc (formerly Facebook) is planning to launch a payments platform that supports cryptocurrency. In a record submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Meta filed five applications for a new platform that it calls ‘Meta Pay”. According to trademark attorney Josh Gerben on Twitter, the filings indicate that Meta plans to launch a payment platform called “META PAY” for users to exchange old-fashioned regular money and cryptocurrencies.
The applications seek licenses “to operate as an ‘online social networking service for investors allowing financial trades and exchange of digital currency, posible currency, cryptocurrency, digital and blockchain assets, digitised assets, digital tokens, crypto tokens and utility tokens.”
Earlier this month, Instagram said its users will now be able to showcase their blockchain art in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the platform. Meta-owned Instagram will integrate with Ethereum, Polygon, Solana and Flow blockchain networks to facilitate this. Users will have to add their crypto wallets such as Metamask and prove their NFT ownership before showcasing it on the platform.
In March, Meta Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Instagram is exploring plans to add NFTs to the platform. “We’re working on bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near term,” said Zuckerberg while speaking at a session by Southwest, reported Engadget.
However, he didn’t clarify how Meta wants to implement NFT on its platforms. “Over the next several months, the ability to bring some of your NFTs in, hopefully over time be able to mint things within that environment,” Zuckerberg was quoted as saying by The Verge.
In January, a Financial Times report said Meta is exploring plans to allow users to create, showcase and sell NFTs on Facebook and Instagram. Notably, Instagram leader Adam Mosseri said in December last year that his social network was “actively exploring” NFTs. He said, “Nothing to announce yet but we are definitely actively exploring NFTs and how we can make them more accessible to a broader audience.” Before that, Zuckerberg also spoke in October about how the metaverse will need to support “ownership of digital goods or NFTs.”
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