Facebook may acquire “killed” SEC cryptocurrency startup Basis

The largest social network Facebook is negotiating with representatives of at least 12 blockchain startups about their possible acquisition, reports The Information .

It is known that among them:

• now inactive steybloko-project Basis
• founded by MIT professor Silvio Mikali startup Algorand
• Keybase startup specializing in end-to-end encryption.

Negotiations with Basis began in December, immediately after the startup’s decision to close. Then Nader Al-Naji, the CEO of Intangible Labs, which is behind the Basis project, said that $ 133 million of funding raised earlier would be returned to investors. Other recent names include Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital, Digital Currency Group, MetaStable Capital, Pantera Capital and PolyChain Capital.

According to Al-Naji, the development of the Basis technology was almost completed and the company for the most part simply waited for the “green light” from the regulator. However, lawyers concluded that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is likely to regard the company's tokens as securities.

According to experts, such Facebook activity can serve as confirmation of rumors about the development of steylcoin for the popular messenger WhatsApp . Currently, the blockchain division of Facebook is headed by ex-president of PayPal and former board member David Marcus. There are 40 people in his team.

Recall the other day it became known about the transition blockchain-startup Chainspace under the control of Facebook.

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