Facebook Pilots Novi Crypto Wallet With Coinbase, but Senators Urge Zuckerberg to ‘Immediately Discontinue’

The Facebook logo is displayed connected their website successful an illustration photograph taken successful Bordeaux, France, connected Feb. 1, 2017. (Regis Duvignau/Reuters)

Social media elephantine Facebook has launched a aviator of its Novi crypto wallet successful the United States and Guatemala but is already facing beardown absorption from 5 Democratic senators.

What Happened

David Marcus, caput of Facebook Financial, announced the Novi aviator programme connected Tuesday to trial the crypto wallet’s halfway diagnostic functions and its ain operational capabilities.

Congrats @davidmarcus and team!

It takes a batch of perseverance to disregard the haters and ship. https://t.co/QRAvqXnPd0

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) October 19, 2021

The task was brought to beingness done partnerships with crypto speech Coinbase Global Inc. and blockchain infrastructure level Paxos.

After downloading the Novi integer wallet app, users participating successful the aviator programme tin money their accounts and transact with the Paxos Dollar, a Paxos-issued stablecoin pegged to the worth of the U.S. dollar.

“I bash privation to beryllium wide that our enactment for Diem hasn’t changed and we mean to motorboat Novi with Diem erstwhile it receives regulatory support and goes live. We attraction astir interoperability and we privation to bash it right,” said Marcus with regards to Facebook’s in-development cryptocurrency Diem.

I bash privation to beryllium wide that our enactment for Diem hasn’t changed and we mean to motorboat Novi with Diem erstwhile it receives regulatory support and goes live. We attraction astir interoperability and we privation to bash it right. 5/8

— David Marcus (@davidmarcus) October 19, 2021

However, lone hours aft Marcus’s announcement, U.S. Senators Brian Schatz, Tina Smith, Richard Blumenthal, Sherrod Brown, and Elizabeth Warren called for the task to beryllium unopen down.

“Facebook cannot beryllium trusted to negociate a outgo strategy oregon integer currency erstwhile its existing quality to negociate risks and support consumers harmless has proven wholly insufficient,” wrote the senators successful a missive addressed to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

“We impulse you to instantly discontinue your Novi aviator and to perpetrate that you volition not bring Diem to market,” they stated.

Price Action

On Wednesday morning, Facebook shares are 0.14 percent higher astatine $340.37; Coinbase is up 2.34 percent astatine $312.79; and the starring integer plus Bitcoin is up 5.50 percent astatine $65,917.89 aft the archetypal U.S.-based Bitcoin futures ETF began trading connected the NYSE.

By Samyuktha Sriram

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