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CryptoMeta

Meta quietly rolls out stablecoin payments four years after demise of controversial Libra project

By
Jack Kubinec
Jack Kubinec
and
Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss
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By
Jack Kubinec
Jack Kubinec
and
Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 29, 2026, 2:10 PM ET
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta.David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images

Meta has reentered the stablecoin market. Four years after pulling the plug on an earlier attempt, the tech giant has quietly rolled out digital currency payouts for select creators in Colombia and the Philippines, according to an update to the tech giant’s website. The payouts are available on the Solana and Polygon blockchain networks and use the stablecoin USDC.

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Creators who opt for Meta’s stablecoin payouts will be prompted to enter their third-party crypto wallet address into Facebook’s payout platform. Meta will not offer services to convert USDC into local currencies. Meta also partnered with Stripe for some crypto-specific tax reporting for the stablecoin payouts, according to the webpage. 

“We strive to offer the most relevant payment methods, which is why we are exploring how stablecoins could become part of our suite of options,” a Meta spokesperson told Fortune.

A spokesperson for Stripe confirmed to Fortune that it’s working with Meta.

The rollout from Meta follows the tech giant’s failed attempt to launch its own stablecoin through a project called Libra (later rebranded as Diem), which the company abandoned in 2022 after opposition from lawmakers and Congress. Last year, the company began to reexplore stablecoins amid a more favorable regulatory environment under President Donald Trump, Fortune previously reported. Meta put out requests for help on its stablecoin project earlier this year.

“The future of marketplace payouts is being built on blockchain infrastructure like Polygon,” Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron said in a statement shared with Fortune, adding that Meta’s stablecoin payout program is expected to expand to more than 160 countries by the end of the year.

“Solana has emerged as the default place for internet-scale payments,” Solana Foundation head of product Catherine Gu said in a statement shared with Fortune.

Stablecoin explosion

Meta is the latest major firm to integrate stablecoins. Since early last year, under the Trump administration, Big Tech firms like Airbnb, X, Apple, and Google have all explored how to integrate stablecoins into their payments technology. But, following the 2025 passage of the GENIUS Act, which created a regulatory framework for dollar-backed stablecoins, major companies have started to make definite moves.

Shopify has begun allowing merchants to accept USDC payments, and Western Union just announced plans to offer a stablecoin on the Solana blockchain. DoorDash and the payments blockchain startup Tempo have begun working together on allowing DoorDash drivers to be paid in stablecoins.  

Meta announced its Libra project in July 2019, initially pitching an open-source stablecoin backed by a number of payments, tech, and venture capital firms. The currency would have been available to Meta’s billions of users, many of whom had limited access to financial services, but it faced intense regulatory scrutiny from the start. The project wound down in 2022, around the same time that Meta began pouring resources into a virtual reality concept known as the metaverse.

Things look much rosier for Meta’s crypto efforts this time around, however, as the total number of stablecoins has increased more than a hundredfold since the firm first announced Libra.

Update, April 29, 2026: This article has been updated with comments from Polygon, Solana, and Stripe as well as details surrounding Meta’s Libra project.

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Ben Weiss is a crypto reporter at Fortune.

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