Tag: mark zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg's Sister Randi Zuckerberg Shows Her Support For Bitcoin & Ripple

Randi Zuckerberg, Mark Zuckerberg’s sister, has lately been showing her immense support and interest in the cryptocurrency market, particularly for Bitcoin and Ripple XRP. In one of her satellite radio show, SiriusXM, she called Meltem Demirors as her guest. 

Meltem Demirors is the Chief Strategy Officer at digital asset management firm Coinshares. It currently has $750 Million under its portfolio. In the show, Demirors opened up about how she was introduced to the world of cryptocurrency. She went on to say that Bitcoin isn’t just a technology but a strong philosophical component.  

According to Demirors, it is the monetary policy, rights of the individual, and self-sovereignty vs. rights of the state, which is in question. She believes the most significant advantage of cryptocurrencies is that we don’t have to trust the third parties. 

Randi Zuckerberg also called in Asheel Birla for her satellite radio show, who is the Senior Vice President of Ripple’s Product and Corporate Development. 

“I think Ripple will be really taking off in the next 2 years. The world order will be reshuffled using blockchain technology. I think Asia will lead the pack,” said Asheel Birla. 

Birla was thrilled to acknowledge that blockchain is the classic example of a technology building something out of nothing”, said Asheel Birla. 

Randi Zuckerberg also hopped in Alexander Tapscott, who is a co-author of the “Blockchain Revolution.”  

In his interview with Randi Zuckerberg, Alexander Tapscott said that blockchain would “impact financial services beyond the internet impact.” This provides an elbow room for the shortage of digital assets, and such a tight supply is the reason why “Bitcoin is often compared to gold, a digital gold.”

It was interesting to note that in the current bearish market due to Coronavirus outbreak, Oil Market fluctuation, and the US stock market, all three interviewees were bullish for Bitcoin. Randi Zuckerberg’s brother, Mark Zuckerberg, is also planning to launch his own cryptocurrency Libra which aims to facilitate help the unbanked population of the world and improve financial inclusion.   

Image via Business Insider

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Endorses Bitcoin in a Subtle Way

Facebook’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg may have some hidden love for Bitcoin (BTC).

However, all that is changing as Zuckerberg, who ranks as one of the richest men in the world, has shown through a Facebook post that he whimsically has some love for the cryptocurrency.

It is no longer news that some of the biggest names in tech and in the business world are showing their interest in the evolution of digital currencies. From Tesla’s Elon Musk to Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, the list goes on as key tech stakeholders are beginning to embrace the new form of money.

The interest from each of these men, who has led their respective companies to secure Bitcoin on their balance sheets, has had a tremendous impact in pushing the price of the cryptocurrency to new heights. For example, when Elon Musk’s Tesla invested $1.5 billion into Bitcoin back in February, the price of the asset surged to an all-time high above $45,000.

With Zuckerberg coming out to talk about Bitcoin, there are strong speculations that the billionaire CEO may either be eyeing a Bitcoin move or that he already holds a position with the digital currency. This will not be a surprising move as many have predicted that the demand for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general will escalate for both retail and institutional investors.

Zuckerberg’s speculated interest in Bitcoin may lead to hesitant investors being sold on the cryptocurrency. Currently, Bitcoin has seen a pullback from the $60,000 psychological level, in contrast with Ethereum which has been on a tear, rising above $4,000 for the first time in its 6 years history. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is exchanging hands at $55,777.67, down 4.2% in the past 24 hours according to Coingecko. 

Instagram to Welcome NFTs Feature, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Confirms

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Meta will add the Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) function to its video and photo social app Instagram in the coming months so that users might display their NFTs on the platform.

Zuckerberg reportedly said at a South by Southwest forum Tuesday in Austin, Texas:

“We’re working on bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near term.”

Zuckerberg hopes that Instagram users will be able to mint their own NFTs on the platform in the near future. However, “I’m not ready to kind of announce exactly what that’s going to be today,” Zuckerberg refused to share specifics on when and how the framework might work.

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, its application Instagram reportedly developed non-fungible tokens (NFT) feature on its app, a mobile developer reveals since last July.

On the other hand, last June, Mobile developer Alessandro Paluzzi indicated that Instagram is working on NFT bidding options to users by providing a platform to sell their “Collectible” products on its platform. However, Instagram has yet to announce the launching of NFT on its platform or show any potential payment features on the platform.

Online adult content subscription platform OnlyFans has launched a feature for users to display verified NFTs as profile pictures, Blockchain.News reported on February 11. 

As reported by blockchain. News on January 21, social media platform Twitter announced that it was rolling out an official verification mechanism for NFT avatars, allowing some users to set the NFTs they own as their profile picture.

Following in the footsteps of Twitter, Reddit is eyeing to permit users to have NFT-based profile pictures through a feature that is being tested on January 27.

FTX CEO Breaks Down Zuckerberg's Intent To Invest $10B/Year Into Meta

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried on Sunday took to his Twitter to break down the reason behind Zuckerberg rebranding his company Facebook to Meta and his intent to pump $10 billion every year into Meta.

Ever since the rebranding from Facebook to Meta to showcase its focus on the Metaverse, most people have since been wondering why a company so big could be so devoted to a technology that is very much still in its infant stage.

More shocks started pouring in when Zuckerberg began his $100 billion Metaverse experiment with the release of Avatar for the Meta’s Horizon Worlds VR platform. However, the avatar wasn’t quite amazing to most people, which made them troll it.

Zuckerberg ignored the mockings of the avatar and with every change and upgrade, the avatar seemed visually better than its predecessor.

According to Sam Bankman-Fried, Facebook was having a bad time due to its reputation not being so great and the company’s growth “stalling out.”

Sam added, saying, “Facebook didn’t stop growing because of TikTok or bloat or narrative-it stopped growing because there was no more room to grow. Half the world already had an account. There just weren’t really any more users left to add. Facebook wasn’t shit. It had already won.”

Sam went further to indicate that for Meta to not just fade out entirely into oblivion, Zuckerberg came up with the idea of jumping into the next trend, which was the Metaverse, to distract people from its “reputational problems” and to project a “futuristic enough space that they could convince people that maybe they were going to make another $100b from it.”

Sam highlighted that even with Zuckerberg’s master plan to leverage the Metaverse, “the vague meta guidance” no longer works. But “Zuck keeps spending.”

To conclude, Sam stated the idea of Zuck rebranding to Meta to showcase its focus on technology was a great distraction but yet it was also simultaneously real. 

“Zuck is planning to spend tens of billions on building out The Metaverse because he believes in The Metaverse.” Moreover, Facebook had already won by becoming the largest social media network on the web. “So what’s next? Start building Social Media 3.0,” concluded Sam.

Last week, Meta’s Facebook Reality Labs (FRL)  division, which is responsible for the research and development of Meta’s augmented and virtual reality as well as Metaverse operations, reported a third-quarter loss of over $3.7 billion, making only $285 million. As reported by Blockchain.News, the $285 million revenue for the quarter was a downgrade from the $558 million they made last year.

Meta's Digital Assets Expansion: A Scrutiny by Maxine Waters

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the Ranking Member of the United States House Financial Services Committee, questions Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly Facebook) regarding its trademark applications indicative of a potential expansion in the digital assets ecosystem.

Waters’ concerns, conveyed in a letter dated January 22, 2024, to Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Javier Olivan, stem from five trademark applications filed by Meta on March 18, 2022. Despite Meta’s assertion on October 12, 2023, that the company was not engaging in any digital assets work, these applications suggest otherwise. The committee is pressing Meta for clarity on any ongoing or planned blockchain or crypto-related projects​​​​​​​​.

The trademark applications cover a range of services in the crypto and blockchain sphere, including trading, exchange, payments, transfers, and the associated hardware and software infrastructure. A Notice of Allowance (NOA) for each filing indicates Meta’s applications meet registration requirements. Meta must now file a statement of use or request an extension within six months of the NOA issuance dates, which range from August 2023 to January 2024​​.

This inquiry isn’t Maxine Waters’ first involvement in scrutinizing tech giants’ forays into the digital assets sector. In 2019, Waters was vocal in her concerns over Meta’s Libra (later Diem) stablecoin project. Meta had announced its plans to develop the cryptocurrency and a corresponding digital wallet, Calibra. However, the project faced significant backlash from lawmakers and regulators, leading to its eventual discontinuation and the sale of its assets to Silvergate Bank in January 2022​​​​.

Waters’ letter questions the extent of Meta’s involvement in digital assets, including any plans to launch a crypto payments platform, the company’s research into stablecoins, partnerships with stablecoin projects, and the adoption of distributed ledger technology (DLT). The congresswoman is particularly concerned about the implications of big tech companies like Meta entering the digital assets space, given their access to vast amounts of user data and the lack of a federal framework for regulating such ventures​​.

In the broader context, Meta’s involvement in digital assets reflects a growing trend among tech giants exploring blockchain and cryptocurrency as potential new business avenues. However, this expansion raises critical questions about user privacy, data security, regulatory compliance, and the impact on traditional financial systems.

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