Zuckerberg suddenly restarts the stablecoin plan.

In 2019, Meta announced a bold plan: to launch a new stablecoin that would run on Facebook, WhatsApp, and many other digital platforms. However, after facing strong opposition from the U.S. Congress and other legislatures, the company eventually abandoned the plan. Now, Meta is once again testing the waters in the stablecoin space. According to five people familiar with the matter, the company is in discussions with crypto companies to launch stablecoins as a means of managing payments, and has hired a VP of product with experience in stablecoins to drive the discussions. The identities of all five people were known to Fortune, but they asked to discuss the trade secret on the condition of anonymity.

Meta declined to comment.

Stablecoin is a non-volatile encryption currency pegged to the US dollar, which has long attracted attention in the blockchain industry, but the Biden administration's tough anti-encryption policies have limited its mainstream application. However, the election of Donald Trump as president last November, along with the recent acquisition of stablecoin startup Bridge by payment giant Stripe for $1.1 billion, has driven the broader application of stablecoins in the financial sector, especially as a cross-border payment tool.

In the past month, Visa announced a partnership with stablecoin infrastructure provider Bridge, financial company Fidelity revealed it is developing its own stablecoin, and Stripe launched a new financial account based on stablecoin.

Meta's interest in this technology reflects the growing attention of non-encryption companies towards stablecoins, especially as congressional lawmakers debate two bills aimed at regulating stablecoins, which seek to end years of regulatory uncertainty.

Meta's encryption plan

According to her LinkedIn profile, Ginger Baker joined Meta as Vice President of Product in January this year, focusing on the fintech and payments sector. She previously held an executive position at the fintech company Plaid and still serves as a board member of the cryptocurrency company Stellar Development Foundation, which manages Layer-1 blockchain. According to a knowledgeable source, she is assisting Meta in advancing the exploration of stablecoin.

Meta refused Baker's request for an interview.

According to three informed sources, Meta had contacted multiple encryption infrastructure companies earlier this year. The discussions are still in the preliminary stage, but the focus is on a core advantage of stablecoins over fiat currencies - the ability to make payments to individuals in different regions at lower costs, while traditional payment methods like wire transfers incur high fees.

An executive from a cryptocurrency infrastructure provider suggested that Meta's subsidiary Instagram could integrate stablecoins to make small payments of around $100 to creators in different markets, which would incur lower costs than using fiat currency payments. The executive described that Meta is currently in a "learning phase" and added that Meta will remain neutral when choosing the type of stablecoin, rather than being tied to a specific provider, such as Circle's USDC. Two other cryptocurrency executives also revealed to Fortune magazine that they have had early discussions with Meta about payment scenarios.

At the same time, Circle poached Matt Cavin from the game blockchain company Immutable in March. According to an informed source, Cavin is in talks with Meta and other tech giants regarding related matters. Cavin's LinkedIn profile shows that his current position at Circle is "Head of Tier 1 Strategic Partnerships," but does not specify the partner companies.

Circle declined to comment.

Explosive Growth of Stablecoins

Meta's exploration of stablecoins is particularly noteworthy, as it was the most well-known large tech company exploring the integration of cryptocurrencies. In 2019, Meta announced a blockchain initiative that later evolved into Libra, a proposed consortium made up of companies including Uber and PayPal, which planned to launch a stablecoin backed by a basket of fiat currencies. After rebranding to Diem, Meta abandoned the project under regulatory scrutiny in early 2022. Meta sold Diem's assets to the cryptocurrency-friendly bank SilverGate.io.

Several employees who previously participated in the Libra project subsequently founded their own encryption companies, including David Marcus, the founder of the Bitcoin payment infrastructure company Lightspark. Other former Meta employees also leveraged Meta's technology to redevelop their own blockchain. Notably, the founders of Aptos and Sui, which are two blockchains running on the proprietary programming language Move developed by Meta.

On Tuesday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivered a speech at the Stripe conference, where he acknowledged the failure of Diem during a stage conversation with Stripe co-founder John Collison, as shown in a video obtained by Fortune. Zuckerberg stated, "That thing is no longer viable."

When asked about Meta's tendency to often be at the forefront of technological trends, Zuckerberg said, "Of course, being ahead is much more interesting than being behind." But he added, "There are still many areas where we are behind and need to work hard to get back in the game, and I think we are doing pretty well on that front."