After discontinuing its previous high-profile crypto venture, Diem, tech giant Meta (formerly Facebook) is back in the saddle with plans to launch a stablecoin to manage payment costs. A crypto news portal cited five sources that are familiar with the matter. These sources reported that Meta has held discussions with crypto infrastructure firms about using stablecoins to reduce cross-regional payment costs. The company views stablecoins as a more cost-effective way to tackle the issue compared to using fiat currencies.
Reportedly, the tech company also hired a vice president of the product, Ginger Baker, the former Ripple executive. Meanwhile, Ripple has already launched its stablecoin RLUSD last year.
Why did Meta pull back its first crypto venture, Diem?
Meta launched Libra in 2019 to create a stablecoin for digital payments through the company’s social media apps, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. However, the company closed the door on the project following regulatory backlashes from the government and central banks of that time. Contextually, Libra was rebranded as Diem to get rid of the negative reputation. What’s more, Diem eventually had to sell its assets to Silvergate Bank; however, the bank ceased its operation due to bankruptcy in 2023.
The company also introduced Novi, a pilot digital wallet project in 2021, to facilitate international money transfer using the USDP stablecoin — Paxos Dollar. Unfortunately, the company shut down the project in 2022.
Meta’s latest decision to explore stablecoins reportedly shows that it is highly interested in exploiting the use cases of stablecoins. Importantly, this news comes in the wake of the US government’s crypto-friendly approach, marking stablecoin legislation through the GENIUS and STABLE Acts.
Stablecoin adoption and usage have been hitting the crypto industry with happy news as several countries show a significant amount of stablecoin activity. In Argentina, nearly 61.8% of all crypto-related usage involves stablecoins, while Brazil has 59.8% of stablecoin activities. According to blockchain analytics platform DefiLlama, the stablecoin market cap has reached $242.805 billion on May 9, 2025.
