Meta Inc (previously Facebook) intends to launch a cryptocurrency-supporting payments platform. Meta filed five applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a new platform called “Meta Pay” in a record provided to the USPTO. The papers, according to trademark attorney Josh Gerben on Twitter, implying that Meta intends to build a payment mechanism named “META PAY” allowing customers to interchange traditional money and cryptocurrency.
The applications ask for permission to “act as an ‘online social networking service for investors facilitating financial trades and exchange of digital currency, virtual currency, cryptocurrencies, digital and blockchain assets, digitized assets, digital tokens, crypto tokens, and utility tokens.”
Instagram announced earlier this month that users would be able to showcase their blockchain art in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the site. To facilitate this, Meta-owned Instagram will interact with the Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and Flow blockchain networks. Before displaying their NFT on the platform, users will need to add their crypto wallets, such as Metamask, and prove their ownership.
In March, Meta Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that Instagram is considering adding NFTs to the platform. “We’re working on introducing NFTs to bringing in the near term,” Zuckerberg stated during a Southwest session, according to Engadget.
He did not, however, elaborate on how Meta intends to deploy 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 reported as saying by The Verge.
