Meta Reportedly Exploring Stablecoins for Small-Payment Use Case

Meta is contacting infrastructure providers to explore the implementation of stablecoins with a payout use case in mind. The development would mark a new start for the company’s crypto plans after dropping the Libra project.

Meta Reportedly Mulling Stablecoins for Small Payouts to Creators

Meta, the social behemoth, is reportedly getting into the world of crypto again. According to Fortune, which cites five different anonymous sources, the company is now mulling the inclusion of stablecoins as part of its payout arsenal for content creators.

The implementation of stablecoins would simplify the settlement of small payments to Instagram influencers, who are currently marred with high transaction fees and other problems derived from using fiat currencies in different countries.

Ginger Baker, who started at Meta as a VP of product in January and has a crypto background, would be part of these talks, which are exploratory and don’t have a service provider locked in yet.

These would be the first set of crypto-related developments in Meta after the fallout of project Libra. The initiative, which encompassed the development of a stablecoin based on a basket of currencies, failed and was disbanded due to regulatory opposition during the crypto-hostile Biden administration.

This new approach would benefit from a significantly less ambitious scope than that project, which also garnered the support of finance and payment giants such as Paypal, Visa, Ebay, and Mastercard.

Meta’s new crypto payment interest would have nothing to do with Libra, as Zuckerberg recently referenced it as being “dead” in a recent discussion with Stripe’s John Collison. The company sold what was left of Libra, later renamed Diem, to Silvergate after its disbandment in 2022.

This development happens as stablecoin adoption has exploded in the institutional arena, with several credit and payment companies like Visa and Mastercard expanding their acceptance of these assets and integrating them as part of their networks.

Last month, a report from Citi predicted that the stablecoin global market cap might reach $3.7 trillion in a bull case led by favorable regulation and growing institutional adoption.

Read more: Citi Predicts $3.7 Trillion Bull Case Stablecoin Explosion in Global Markets

Read more: Visa Integrates Stablecoins Into 150 Million Merchant Network