David Marcus: Facebook and Novi are 'definitely looking' to integrate NFTs

Facebook Financial head David Marcus is showing a lot of interest in the developing world of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.

"It's too early to talk about our plans, but we're definitely looking at a number of plans to get involved in the space, because we're in a good position to do so," said Marcus, in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday. "We can have a positive impact, both for creators and for consumers."

He said that the Novi wallet could be used to store NFTs once it goes live. Alluding to the sorts of services the NFT ecosystem needs, Marcus said, "If you're a creator and you're creating your NFT, you may want to rent your NFT, you may want to sell your NFT. You'll have to store your NFT." 

Facebook's stablecoin plans

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Marcus also elaborated on recent comments on the Novi wallet and its relationship to the long-delayed stablecoin Diem. He reiterated that Novi is ready to launch but is waiting on Diem to go live.

In that earlier blog post, Marcus had referred to opposition to Facebook's involvement in finance as "un-American." Elaborating, he said "I don't think we deserve people's trust, I think we deserve a shot at earning people's trust."

Other than CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself, David Marcus has been the public face most associated with Facebook's plans for a stablecoin. Since Facebook put out a whitepaper for Libra in June 2019, it has undergone tremendous changes. Libra now goes by Diem, the Calibra wallet has become Novi, and Novi has become more interested in exploring other coins

Even Facebook Financial, or F2, is a recent creation, launching earlier in August. It's an umbrella organization for financial services including Facebook Pay and Novi.

About Author

Kollen Post is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things policy and geopolitics from Washington, DC. That includes legislation and regulation, securities law and money laundering, cyber warfare, corruption, CBDCs, and blockchain’s role in the developing world. He speaks Russian and Arabic. You can send him leads at [email protected].