Meta (META), the social media giant behind Facebook and Instagram, has started offering stablecoin payments to creators, signaling a return to cryptocurrency-based payments years after shelving its Libra project.
The feature is currently available to a limited group of creators in Colombia and the Philippines, according to a Meta website. Eligible users can link a crypto wallet and receive payments in Circle’s USDC token on the Solana or Polygon blockchain networks.
The service is supported by payments company Stripe, which will provide cryptocurrency-related reports to users. Creators can receive tax documents from both Meta and Stripe tied to their earnings and digital asset transactions. A Stripe spokesperson confirmed the company’s involvement to CoinDesk.
“Businesses can now send stablecoin payments directly to customers using Link,” said Jay Shah, director of Link at Stripe, referring to the company’s customer payment service. “We are already partnering with Meta so that their creators can receive stablecoins in their Link wallets in countries like the Philippines and Colombia.”
The news comes after Meta sought help from third-party providers to manage stablecoin payments on its platforms, with Stripe among the top contenders for the integration, CoinDesk reported in February.
The move places Meta, with more than 3 billion users on its social media platforms globally, among the largest technology companies experimenting with stablecoins for real-world payments, using blockchain rails to move money globally to users without relying on traditional banking systems. Stablecoins (cryptocurrencies whose prices are tied to fiat currencies) are increasingly seen as a faster and cheaper payment method. Visa, for example, reported that its stablecoin settlement network reached $7 billion in annualized transaction volume, growing 50% in one quarter.
The initiative marks Meta’s return to stablecoins after it attempted to introduce the Libra token, later renamed Diem, only to shut down the project amid regulatory scrutiny in 2022.
Read more: Stripe doubles down on blockchain and stablecoins, with the goal of becoming “AWS for money”
UPDATE (April 29, 20:22 UTC): Adds a statement from Jay Shah, Director of Link at Stripe.
