Bitcoin bounce and is Mark Zuckerberg planning to launch another crypto coin?

Is this Bitcoin’s bounce on the line of support? After the largest digital currency fell to $38,500 on Tuesday, major players started buying Bitcoin again. Yesterday we even went briefly above $40k. I’m still waiting for confirmation on the charts, but it seems to me that the panic is over.

Anyway, two months ago (end of November 2023) Bitcoin was trading around $40k, now it’s around $40k again. The only news is that an ETF has been approved.

Quo vadis Mark? That is the question for many in the crypto world now that Meta (formerly Facebook) has once again filed several patent applications. Since five of these patent applications are for digital coins and their own blockchain, nervous questions are being asked by American politicians.

Libra

You see, Facebook tried to launch its own digital currency years ago already. In 2019, it submitted an application to the patent office in the United States for a digital currency called ‘Libra’ through which Facebook users could pay each other for products and services.

However, the coin, which had a potential of reaching 2 billion users, caused immediate panic in the financial world. After all, with that number of possible users for a currency, Libra would become a rival to both the dollar and the Euro. The banks quickly tried to block the project through regulators, lobbyists and politicians.

Silvergate

Zuckerberg changed the name of the project to ‘Diem’ in 2021, but by then everyone realized that the global banks would never allow Facebook to launch its own currency. When Facebook changed its name to Meta, the ‘Diem’ project was sold to Silvergate Bank.

Meta abandoned crypto in 2022. Maxine Waters wants to know why the company is still filing patents for it. https://t.co/xBdRwda5lF

— FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) January 24, 2024

That same Silvergate Bank went bankrupt early last year and was the cause of the (small) American banking crisis of 2023.

So now Meta may want to start its own digital currency again and has filed patents for digital coins and its own blockchain. American politicians are again very nervous and have asked Zuckerberg for an explanation.

So far, Meta has not responded in detail as to what its plans are.