Meta’s stablecoin plan questioned by Democrats ahead of the major Senate vote

Senate Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal want to explain to Meta what the stubcoin plan is.

In a letter sent to the social media giant on Wednesday, lawmakers asked the company, previously known as Facebook, to detail its stable ambitions, pointing to previous reports of issues Meta had with fraud, pointing to “substantiated anti-competitive conduct” and privacy issues.

Meta is considering using Stablecoins for payments, Fortune reported last month.

“If Meta controls its own stubcoin, the company can further pry out consumer transactions and commercial activities,” the letter said. “The vast amount of consumer data it ingests can help monetize sensitive personal information through metafuel monitoring pricing schemes on the platform, more intrusive targeted ads, or sales to third-party data brokers.”

The letter includes a list of questions, including whether Meta is considering launching its own stubcoin. He also asked whether Meta would oppose any amendments that would prevent large tech companies from blocking partnerships or ownership with Stablecoin publishers.

We also asked the company to explain how the new Stablecoin plan, which spearheaded in 2019, differed from the now-deprecated Libra (later DIEM) project meta.

“The company attempted to issue its own private currency in 2019 as part of the so-called Libra Stablecoin project, encountering overwhelming bipartisanship and international opposition,” the letter states.

Meta spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.

This letter is expected to vote for the Senate on the Genius Act, its stablecoin bill. Senate majority leader John Toon said weeks ago that the body might consider amending the bill, but he told politics earlier this week that the path to the revision was not so clear.

The bill could be passed without amendments. Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, told Coindsk last week that he would easily clear the 60-vote procedural threshold for coagulation, hoping that 16 Democrats will support the bill along with the majority of Republicans.