Meta trademark filing hints at plans for crypto payments platform

Social media giant Facebook’s parent company, Meta, may be planning to launch a payments platform with cryptocurrency support.

According to records filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on May 13, Meta submitted five applications for its namesake to be used on a platform called Meta Pay. The filings included Meta’s name for use in an “online social networking service for investors enabling financial trading and exchange of digital currency, virtual currency, cryptocurrency, digital and blockchain assets, digitized assets, digital tokens, crypto tokens, and Utility token enabled”.

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

“META PAY”

That’s what the files indicate @Meta plans to launch a payment platform called “META PAY” that will allow users to exchange old-fashioned regular money and cryptocurrencies.#Meta $FB#metaverse pic.twitter.com/W2ObxgAWfl

— Josh Gerben (@JoshGerben) May 18, 2022

In March, Meta filed eight trademark applications with the USPTO related to Metaverse and blockchain technology. CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said on May 9 that the company had started testing digital collectibles on Instagram, signaling a move toward adding non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Meta currently controls several major apps, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Facebook.

Other United States-based companies, including Gatorade producer Stokely-Van Camp, the Air Force, the New York Stock Exchange, and Mastercard, have made similar filings related to potential Metaverse entries or other expansion into the crypto space . According to the USPTO website, it takes about eight months from March for trademark applications to process an initial action.

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Since renaming from Facebook to Meta in October 2021, the social media giant has announced many initiatives seemingly aimed at reaching out to crypto users. In addition to its online work, Meta has also recently expanded its presence in the real world with the opening of a Metaverse-themed brick-and-mortar retail store in the San Francisco Bay Area.