Meta to Launch Crypto, NFT Platforms, Docs Reveal

Meta Platforms Inc has reportedly aimed to launch a cryptocurrency payment platform, according to trademarks filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), media reported on Wednesday.

Trademark Lawyer Josh Gerben revealed the five 13 May filings on social media, where Meta Platforms hopes to develop Meta Pay, a new cryptocurrency payment platform for users.

Meta Platforms Inc. (i.e. Facebook) has filed 5 new trademark applications for:

“META PAY”

The filings indicate that @Meta plans to launch a payment platform called “META PAY” for users to exchange old-fashioned regular money and cryptocurrencies.#Meta $FB#Metaverse pic.twitter.com/W2ObxgAWfl

— Josh Gerben (@JoshGerben) May 18, 2022

According to the filing, Meta pay is an “online social networking service for investors allowing financial trades and exchange of digital currency, virtual currency, cryptocurrency, digital and blockchain assets, digitized assets, digital tokens, crypto tokens and utility tokens.”

Meta NFT Collectable Trials

The news comes after Meta Platform submitted an additional eight trademarks for blockchain and Metaverse solutions in March and later revealed in May it had begun trials of digital collectables, or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), from US creators on Instagram.

The new feature would allow US users to share NFTs along with their descriptions, as well as automatic tagging of creators and collectors, Meta said in a statement.

Instagram will do more for NFT adoption & onboarding new people than people think.

The next set of people to adopt NFT’s/ Web3 are on Instagram now.

— Collnft.eth (@CollNFT) May 18, 2022

The Menlo Park-based tech giant would also “collect and organize” public data from open blockchains, including Ethereum and Polygon, to identify collectables and their owners while connected to third-party apps, with support for Flow and Solana expected in due course.

Instagram will also support third-party wallets such as MetaMask, TrustWallet, and Rainbow, with expanded support to Coinbase Wallet, Dapper, and Phantom in the next few months.

The blog post read,

“It’s critical that our early efforts in this space empower diverse voices and that underrepresented groups have access to emerging digital assets like NFTs. By building support for NFTs, we aim to improve accessibility, lower barriers to entry, and help make the NFT space more inclusive to all communities”

The company also added it was vital to “keep Instagram a safe and enjoyable place for everyone,” where people could report collectables that violated the platform’s community guidelines, as well as reduced emissions with renewable energy targets.

The news comes just a week after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased audiences with his company’s mixed reality (MR) headset, Project Cambria, in a video showcasing its Presence Platform capabilities.

Following Meta’s rebrand in October last year, the Metaverse firm has unveiled several cutting-edge solutions and tools to build immersive technologies, including its Cambria and Nazare head-mounted displays, numerous AI platforms, an upcoming Research SuperCluster, and ReSkin haptic interfaces.