The company is in discussions with crypto firms and is likely to use more than one type of stablecoin, Fortune reported Thursday (May 8), citing unnamed sources.
The company is looking at stablecoins as a way to make cross-border payments without the fees associated with wire transfers and other payment methods, according to the report.
Meta could, for example, use stablecoins to make small payouts to creators in other regions, the report said.
This effort comes three years after the company abandoned an effort in which it planned to partner with other companies to launch a stablecoin, per the report. Meta announced the initiative — first called Libra and later named Diem — in 2019 but abandoned it in early 2022 when the initiative met with opposition from regulators and lawmakers.
In a reply to a post about Thursday’s Fortune report, Meta Communications Director Andy Stone said: “To be clear: as [Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg] said (and as the story notes), Diem is ‘dead.’ There is no Meta stablecoin.”
Meta’s current consideration of adopting the use of stablecoins comes at a time when the new Trump administration is more favorable to crypto than was the Biden administration, and when stablecoins are being more widely used in the financial sector, the report said.
The report highlighted Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge, Visa’s partnership with Bridge, Fidelity’s announcement that it is developing a stablecoin, and Stripe’s introduction of financial accounts powered by stablecoins.
Stablecoins offer the benefits of cryptocurrency — such as fast transactions and borderless transferability — without the volatility, PYMNTS reported in February.
When Stripe announced its acquisition of stablecoin payments platform Bridge in October, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison said: “Stablecoins are room-temperature semiconductors for financial services. Thanks to stablecoins, businesses around the world will benefit from significant speed, coverage and cost improvements in the coming years.”
Visa’s partnership with Bridge was announced in April, with the companies saying that their collaboration will allow FinTech developers using Bridge’s stablecoin orchestration platform to offer stablecoin-linked Visa cards to their end customers.
It was reported in March that Fidelity, which manages more than $5 trillion in assets, was preparing to launch its own stablecoin as part of its expansion into the burgeoning market for tokenized versions of U.S. Treasuries.
