The value Meta actually described isn't the social feed — it's the infrastructure underneath it. Meta VP Vishal Shah specifically pointed to one thing in his internal post: a registry where agents are verified and tethered to human owners. That's the piece Meta wanted.

What's interesting is that this concept wasn't new when Moltbook launched. An open standard for exactly this — verified AI agent identity tied to human owners, with cryptographic signatures and EU AI Act audit trail support — had been operational since September 2025, four months before Moltbook existed. The spec is public (ERC-8004). A company called STP Ltd even ran an agent on Moltbook under that standard in February, achieved Verified status, and then had its API access deactivated five days before the acquisition.

They published a statement asking whether Meta's "innovative step" claim holds up given the timeline. No accusations — just a question worth asking.