Senate Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal Want Meta to Explain Its Stablecoin Plans

In a letter sent to the social media giant on Wednesday, the lawmakers asked the company formerly known as Facebook to detail its stablecoin ambitions and pointed to previous reports about issues Meta has had with scams

Senate Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal are seeking answers from Meta regarding its plans for a stablecoin. In a letter on Wednesday, the lawmakers expressed their concerns about the potential implications of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, controlling its own cryptocurrency.

As the Senate prepares to vote on the GENIUS Act, its stablecoin bill, Senator Blumenthal and Senator Warren penned a message to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, highlighting their interest in understanding the company’s involvement in the legislation.

Earlier this year, Fortune reported that Meta was considering integrating stablecoins for payment purposes. The senators' inquiries focused on this aspect, aiming to clarify Meta's role in the Senate bill and its feedback on the legislation.

"We are concerned that, despite the clear bipartisan and international opposition to Meta's previous attempts to intervene in the financial system, your company may be planning to integrate itself into the U.S. payments ecosystem through an affiliation with a stablecoin issuer," the senators wrote in the letter.

The senators pointed out that an amendment to the stablecoin bill, which is expected to receive a vote on Wednesday, would specifically prevent a tech firm like Meta, with over $100 billion in assets, from affiliating with or owning a stablecoin issuer. They added that they supported the amendment.

"We are also troubled by reports that, despite this amendment and the intent of Congress, you may be lobbying for provisions in the bill that would enable such affiliations," the senators stated.

Their letter also touched upon the company's past issues with scams, "alleged anticompetitive conduct," and privacy problems.

"If Meta controlled its own stablecoin, the company could further pry into consumers' transactions and commercial activity," the letter said. "The massive amounts of consumer data it would ingest could help Meta fuel surveillance pricing schemes on its platform, more intrusive targeted advertising, or otherwise help the company monetize sensitive private information through sales to third party data brokers."

The senators concluded their letter by posing a series of questions to Zuckerberg, seeking insights into Meta's involvement in the stablecoin bill and its broader cryptocurrency ambitions.

The senators' questions included:

* Is Meta planning to launch its own stablecoin?

* Did Meta or any entity affiliated with the company lobby for or provide feedback on the Senate or House bill?

* Would Meta prefer an amendment to the bill that would permit an affiliation between a large technology company and a stablecoin issuer?

* What is Meta's view on the amendment that would prohibit any entity with over $100 billion in assets from affiliating with or owning a stablecoin issuer, and why?

* How might Meta's new stablecoin plans differ from the now-defunct Libra (later Diem) project that Meta spearheaded in 2019?

A spokesperson for Meta did not immediately return a request for comment.

The letter comes the same day the Senate is set to vote on the GENIUS Act, its stablecoin bill. Though Senate Majority Leader John Thune said weeks ago that the body might consider amendments to the bill, he told Politico earlier this week that the path for amendments was less clear.

The bill is likely to pass without any amendments. Senator Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, told CoinDesk last week he expected 16 Democrats to support the bill alongside a majority of Republicans, easily clearing the 60-vote procedural threshold for cloture.