23andMe has officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which means its assets — including its vast genetic database — will soon be up for sale.

The company continues to sell its at-home DNA testing kits, allowing consumers to get insight into their family histories and genetic profiles. DNA data is particularly sensitive because each person’s sequence is unique, meaning it can never be fully anonymized, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute.

If genetic data falls into the hands of bad actors, it could be used to facilitate identity theft, insurance fraud or other crimes. 23andMe has been plagued by privacy concerns in recent years after hackers accessed the information of nearly 7 million customers in October 2023.

As part of the bankruptcy process, the company said it will seek a partner that shares its commitment to customer data privacy, and that there will be no changes to how it stores, manages and protects data through the sale process.

“Our users’ privacy and data are important considerations in any transaction, and we remain committed to our users’ privacy and to being transparent with our customers about how their data is managed,” the company said in an FAQ page about the bankruptcy filing. “Any buyer of 23andMe will be required to comply with applicable law with respect to the treatment of customer data.”

Still, experts and officials are urging 23andMe customers to proceed with caution. California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Friday issued a consumer alert, encouraging residents to consider deleting their genetic data from 23andMe, which is based in his home state.

“Given 23andMe’s reported financial distress, I remind Californians to consider invoking their rights and directing 23andMe to delete their data and destroy any samples of genetic material held by the company,” Bonta said in the release.

Adrianus Warmenhoven, who serves on the security advisory board at NordVPN, described genetic data as the “blueprint of your entire biological profile.” He encouraged consumers to delete their information and be mindful of the companies they chose to share it with going forward.

“Monitor your digital footprint regularly, and you can also sign up for credit monitoring or identity theft protection services,” Warmenhoven said in a statement to CNBC. “Revoke permissions you no longer require, shut down any account you don’t use, and learn about how your data is used.” 

23andMe said customers can still delete their account and accompanying data. Here’s how:

Delete your genetic data from 23andMe

• Go to 23andMe.com and sign in to your account.
• Click on your profile in the upper righthand corner of the site, then click “Settings.”
• Scroll to the section at the very bottom of the page called “23andMe Data” and click the oval button that says “View.”
• Check the boxes of any data you would like to download and click “Request Download.” This step is optional and can take up to 30 days. You can continue with the following steps while you wait.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the red button that says “Permanently Delete Data.”
• You will receive an email with the subject line “23andMe Delete Account Request.” Open it, and click the button that says “Permanently Delete All Records.” Your data will not be deleted unless you complete this step.

At this point, your personal information and your account will be permanently deleted from 23andMe, according to the deletion email from the company. Additionally, your data will not be used in any future research projects, and any personal samples the company was storing will be discarded.

WATCH: The rise and fall of 23andMe

A quarter century ago, Napster was notorious on the internet for allowing people to swap songs for free, long before the music industry had come up with a model for the digital age.

The service was shuttered in 2001 amid mounting legal battles, and filed for bankruptcy the following year. But the brand isn’t dead.

On Tuesday, Napster was acquired by 3D technology company Infinite Reality for $207 million. Infinite Reality CEO John Acunto told CNBC in an interview that the one-time file-sharing phenomenon will be used for marketing in the metaverse.

Infinite Reality plans to create virtual 3D spaces that allow music fans to enjoy concerts or listening parties together, and let musicians or labels sell physical and virtual merchandise.

“When we think about clients who have audiences — influencers, creators — I think it’s very important that they have a connected space that’s around music and musical communities,” Acunto said. “We just don’t see anybody in the streaming space creating spaces for music.”

Napster is the latest iconic technology brand from decades past to get a new life, following acquisitions and revivals in recent years of Kodak, Nokia and luxury audio brand McIntosh.

“I think there’s no better name than Napster to disrupt,” Acunto said.

Napster was launched in 1999 by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, and became the first significant peer-to-peer file-sharing application. It allowed PC users to swap MP3 files, which could be played in a media player like Winamp, and build collections of digital popular music for free.

The record industry quickly took aim at Napster, accusing the company of allowing people to share pirated files. Heavy metal band Metallica sued Napster, and was followed by the Recording Industry Association of America. After bankruptcy, Napster’s assets were sold off to a series of owners, current CEO Jon Vlassopulos told CNBC.

Since 2016, Napster has been a music streaming service offering on-demand streaming of licensed tracks, currently for $11 per month. It’s a small player in a world dominated by Spotify and Apple Music. In 2022, Napster was bought by blockchain company Algorand, whose investors brought in Vlassopulos.

Napster holds official licenses to stream millions of tracks, agreements that were attractive to Infinite Reality, which says that its version of Napster will “disrupt legally.” And Algorand’s background in blockchain technology was intriguing to Infinite Reality, which also develops Web3 technology, Acunto said.

Alongside streaming music, the combination with Infinite Reality will allow Napster to offer more social features, digital merchandise and shopping.

Artists will be able to create “crazy environments that are really only limited by their imaginations” in Napster, Vlassopulos said. As an example, he imagined a reggae artist who might want to create a beach hangout environment.

Acunto says that when music fans can share a virtual space together, it will be like “Clubhouse times a trillion.” He was referring to the entertainment and virtual events app that became popular during the pandemic before petering out when society reopened.

Infinite Reality, which is building a headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was founded in 2019 and has been acquisitive in recent months, buying companies such as the Drone Racing League, Landvault and virtual reality retail brand Obsess.

In January, the company announced that it had raised $3 billion at a $12.25 billion valuation, although it didn’t reveal any investors. Acunto told CNBC that the company’s investors want to stay anonymous.

World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance venture backed by President Donald Trump and his family, has launched a stablecoin, joining an increasingly crowded market.

The company said Tuesday that the stablecoin, dubbed USD1, will be pegged to the U.S. dollar and be backed by short-term U.S. government treasuries, U.S. dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents. It will soon go live on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain networks.

“USD1 provides what algorithmic and anonymous crypto projects cannot — access to the power of DeFi underpinned by the credibility and safeguards of the most respected names in traditional finance,” said World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff. “We’re offering a digital dollar stablecoin that sovereign investors and major institutions can confidently integrate into their strategies for seamless, secure cross-border transactions.”

The market cap for dollar-backed stablecoins — cryptocurrencies that promise a fixed value peg to another asset — has been climbing to new all-time-highs this year and has grown more than 46% in the past year, according to Crypto Quant. Currently dominated by Tether (USDT) and Circle’s USDC, these “systemically important” crypto assets are largely used for trading on centralized and decentralized exchanges and as collateral in DeFi. Crypto investors watch stablecoins closely for evidence of demand, liquidity and activity in the market.

The drumbeat for using stablecoins to help preserve the hegemony of the U.S. dollar has also grown louder in recent months. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at this month’s inaugural White House Crypto Summit that “we are going to keep the U.S. the dominant reserve currency in the world and were going to use stablecoins to do that.”

At last week’s Digital Asset Summit in New York City, Trump addressed attendees virtually, saying the industry “will unleash an explosion of economic growth, and with the dollar back, stable coins, you’ll help expand the dominance of the U.S. dollar.”

WLFI is the latest company to join an increasingly crowded market. PayPal and Gemini are among the many U.S. stablecoin issuers. In December, Ripple announced its new stablecoin, called ripple USD, or RLUSD. A month earlier, a consortium of companies including Robinhood, Galaxy Digital and Kraken launched their Global Dollar, or USDG, and joint stablecoin network, the Global Dollar Network.

Stablecoin legislation is widely seen as the lowest hanging fruit for crypto legislation, which most market participants hope will be passed and implemented sometime this year. The GENIUS Act, which seeks to provide a framework for regulating stablecoins, was recently advanced out of the Senate banking committee with bipartisan support. When the U.S. does get legislation on stablecoins, it’s expected that banks will begin issuing their own as well to take advantage of their ability to make payments faster, cheaper and more transparent.

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