Elizabeth Warren Urges Zuckerberg to Put an End to Facebook’s Novi Cryptocurrency Wallet

Facebook finally released its cryptocurrency wallet Novi, only to be met with an outpouring of criticism from Elizabeth Warren and other lawmakers

Diem, Facebook’s long-awaited cryptocurrency, was not included in the wallet rollout.
Hours after Facebook launched its digital wallet Novi this morning, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and four other Democratic Senators issued a warning shot to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pleading with him to “immediately stop” the program.

Novi started a trial program this morning in the United States and Guatemala, enabling users to immediately purchase and exchange Paxos Dollars (USDP) with no costs. Coinbase will provide cryptocurrency custody services to Novi and will store any money associated with the initiative.

Notably, Novi excludes Facebook’s long-awaited cryptocurrency Diem. This seems to have had little effect on the senators, who also include Brian Schatz (D-HI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Tina Smith (D-MN).

“Facebook cannot be trusted to administer a payment system or digital currency when its capacity to manage risks and keep customers secure has been shown to be completely inadequate “According to what they said in the letter.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), now one of Congress’s most famous crypto doubters, continued to raise the alarm Thursday morning at a Senate Banking Committee hearing.

The path taken by Facebook to create a wallet and stablecoin has proven perilous. A series of scathing congressional hearings in 2019 effectively put an end to the project, which was initially dubbed Libra. Eventually, a number of major partners withdrew from the Libra Association, Libra rebranded as Diem, and Facebook’s Calibra wallet rebranded as Novi.

However, Facebook said this morning that today’s launch of Novi is a critical first step toward Diem’s widespread adoption: “We aim to move Novi to the Diem payment network once it gets regulatory clearance.”

Also Read: Why Grayscale’s CEO Is Confident SEC Will Approve An Ethereum ETF