Mark Zuckerberg to testify before House about Facebook's cryptocurrency plans

Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the House financial services committee about the company's plans to launch its own cryptocurrency next year.

Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., announced Tuesday that Zuckerberg will testify about Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency and digital wallet Calibra on Oct. 23 at 10 a.m.

Waters and other Democratic members of the committee sent a letter to Zuckerberg and Facebook in July calling for the company to halt the implementation of its cryptocurrency plans.

"Because Facebook is already in the hands of over a quarter of the world's population, it is imperative that Facebook and its partners immediately cease implementation plans until regulators and Congress have an opportunity to examine these issues and take action," the committee members wrote.

The committee also announced plans to hold a series of hearings on "the risk and benefits of cryptocurrency-based activities" during the moratorium.

Also in July, the Senate banking committee questioned David Marcus, head of the Facebook subsidiary in charge of Libra.

Waters has called on lawmakers to consider a bill known as the "Keep Big Tech out of Finance Act" which would ban social media and tech companies with at least $25 billion in annual revenue from setting up their own financial systems.