Debit-Card Startup Says Facebook’s Crypto Project Is ‘Ripping Off’ Its Logo

(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc.’s cryptocurrency project Calibra is drawing more flak.

Former Morgan Stanley currency trader Stuart Sopp, now chief executive officer of challenger debit-card company Current, accused Facebook of “ripping off” his startup’s logo for its new crypto venture. Current tweeted a comparison of the two images on Wednesday:

“I was pretty angry, I misspelled Mark Zuckerberg’s name several times and angrily tweeted and deleted a couple,” Sopp said in an interview at a financial conference in Montauk, New York, referring to Facebook’s CEO. “The richest and most powerful people are effectively taking shortcuts by copying us.”

A Facebook representative declined to comment.

Current began offering its app-controlled debit cards overseen by parents in 2017.

--With assistance from Julie Verhage.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lananh Nguyen in New York at lnguyen35@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, David Scheer, Steve Dickson

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.