Meta (META), the social media giant behind Facebook and Instagram, has begun offering stablecoin payments to creators, marking a return to cryptocurrency payments after years of shelving the Libra project.
According to the Meta website, the feature is currently only available to a small number of creators in Colombia and the Philippines. Eligible users can link a crypto wallet and receive payments in Circle’s USDC tokens on the Solana or Polygon blockchain networks.
The service is powered by payments company Stripe, which will provide users with cryptocurrency-related reports. Creators may receive tax documents from Meta and Stripe related to their income and digital asset transactions. A Stripe spokesperson confirmed the company’s involvement to CoinDesk.
“Businesses can now use Link to send stablecoin payments directly to customers,” said Jay Shah, head of Stripe Link, referring to the company’s customer checkout service. “We have partnered with Meta so that their creators can receive stablecoins in Link wallets in countries like the Philippines and Colombia.”
As CoinDesk reported in February, Meta sought help from third-party providers to manage stablecoin payments on its platform, with Stripe being one of the main contenders for integration.
Meta’s social media platform has more than 3 billion users worldwide. The move makes Meta one of the largest technology companies to try to use stablecoins for real-world payments, using blockchain rails to transfer funds to users around the world without relying on traditional banking systems. Stablecoins – cryptocurrencies whose prices are pegged to fiat currencies – are increasingly viewed as a faster and cheaper way to pay. For example, Visa reported that its stablecoin settlement network’s annual transaction volume reached $7 billion, a 50% increase in one quarter.
The move marks Meta’s return to stablecoins after trying to introduce the Libra token, later renamed Diem, only to shut down the project in 2022 amid regulatory scrutiny.
Read more: Stripe doubles down on blockchain and stablecoins, aims to become ‘AWS of money’
Update (April 29, 20:22 UTC): Added statement from Jay Shah, Head of Link at Stripe.
