Well, that didn’t last long – it seems Meta’s cryptocurrency endeavours are coming to an end. Meta has announced that it would sunset its Novi cryptocurrency platform on September 1st, with July 20th being the final day to add funds. Users should withdraw their balances “as soon as possible” as the closing date draw nearer, and Novi will “attempt to transfer” any remaining money to customer bank accounts and debit cards after Novi’s final day of operation.
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Meta, formerly known as Facebook Inc., has been dabbling in cryptocurrency for several years. It has been a tumultuous road, rife with controversies and pushback from users and governments alike. Its own cryptocurrency was previously known as Libra, renamed to Diem. Novi, the cryptocurrency wallet that emanated from the Libra project, launched last October in a “small pilot.” A month later, David Marcus, the company’s crypto chief, left Meta.
Diem has since completely wound down operations and sold off all its assets. However, this doesn’t mean Meta or Mark Zuckerberg are done with cryptocurrencies, even though we are currently in the biggest downturn of the new asset class in a decade.
“We are already leveraging the years spent on building capabilities for Meta overall on blockchain and introducing new products, such as digital collectibles,” a company spokesperson said. “You can expect to see more from us in the web3 space because we are very optimistic about the value these technologies can bring to people and businesses in the metaverse.”
It is clear that the company is putting a lot of its eggs into the metaverse basket, also recently announcing it will launch an avatar store where you can buy digital clothing for its fledgling virtual world. Interestingly, it is also rebranding its main digital payment platform from Facebook Pay to Meta Pay, clearly pivoting towards managing payments and transactions in the metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg called the change a “first step” toward creating a digital wallet for the metaverse.
