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

```json { "title": "Meta Rolls Out Stablecoin Payments Four Years After Libra Collapse", "metaDescription": "Meta quietly launches USDC stablecoin payouts for creators in Colombia and the Philippines via Solana and Polygon, four years after Libra's collapse.", "content": "<h2>Meta Quietly Launches Stablecoin USDC Payouts for Creators</h2><p>Meta has rolled out stablecoin payments for select creators, marking the company's most concrete re-entry into digital currency four years after the collapse of its controversial Libra project. According to an update to Meta's website confirmed by Fortune on April 29, 2026, creators in Colombia and the Philippines can now receive payouts in USDC — a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Circle — via the Solana and Polygon blockchain networks.</p><p>The rollout is quiet by design. There was no splashy press release, no product keynote. Instead, a new page appeared on Meta's website, outlining the mechanics of a program that represents a fundamentally different approach to digital currency than the one that drew a firestorm of regulatory opposition back in 2019.</p><h2>How Meta's Stablecoin Payouts Actually Work</h2><p>Creators who want to opt into the new payout system must enter a third-party crypto wallet address into Facebook's payout platform. According to Crypto Briefing, compatible wallets include MetaMask, Kraken, Phantom, and Binance. Once enrolled, eligible creators in the pilot markets can receive earnings in USDC directly to those wallets.</p><p>There is one notable limitation: Meta will not offer any service to convert USDC into local currencies. Creators who want to access their funds in Colombian pesos or Philippine pesos will need to use third-party cryptocurrency exchanges to make that conversion themselves. That places a real-world friction point on what is otherwise a straightforward payout mechanism — and it is a deliberate boundary Meta has drawn around its own involvement in the process.</p><p>For tax reporting purposes, Meta has partnered with Stripe to handle the crypto-specific documentation associated with these payouts. That partnership carries additional significance given that Stripe CEO Patrick Collison joined Meta's board of directors in April 2025, according to Cointribune.</p><h2>A Deliberately Different Strategy Than Libra</h2><p>The contrast with Meta's first attempt at digital currency could hardly be starker. In June 2019, then-Facebook announced Libra — an ambitious plan to create a global digital currency backed by a basket of fiat currencies. The backlash was immediate and intense. U.S. lawmakers, European regulators, and central banks around the world raised alarms about monetary sovereignty, financial stability, and data privacy. The project was rebranded as Diem in December 2020 and narrowed to a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin in an attempt to ease regulatory concerns. It did not work. In January 2022, Diem was formally wound down and its assets were sold to California-based Silvergate Capital for a reported $200 million.</p><p>The 2026 approach sidesteps virtually every element that made Libra a regulatory target. Rather than issuing a proprietary token, Meta is integrating Circle's existing USDC stablecoin via third-party infrastructure. According to Brave New Coin, this represents a significant departure from the original Libra model — one that bets on distribution rather than control. Meta is not trying to own the currency. It is trying to plug into infrastructure that already exists and already has regulatory standing.</p><p>Dante Disparte, who served as the Libra Association's head of policy and communications and is now chief strategy officer at Circle Internet Financial — the company that issues USDC — offered a pointed retrospective on why that first attempt failed to survive. "I think Libra was met with a giant overreaction around the world," Disparte told CoinDesk.</p><p>Meta, for its part, framed the current effort carefully. "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.</p><h2>The Regulatory Environment That Made This Possible</h2><p>Timing matters here. Meta began reexploring stablecoins last year, according to Fortune, amid what the company and others in the industry have characterized as a more favorable regulatory environment under President Donald Trump. The clearest signal of that shift came with the 2025 passage of the GENIUS Act, which established the first federal regulatory framework for dollar-backed stablecoins in the United States. That legislation gave companies legal clarity that simply did not exist when Libra was announced — and it appears to have served as a starting gun for a wave of corporate stablecoin activity.</p><p>Meta is far from alone. According to Fortune, Shopify has begun accepting USDC payments, Western Union has announced plans to offer a stablecoin on Solana, and DoorDash has partnered with blockchain startup Tempo to pay drivers in stablecoins. Big Tech more broadly — including Airbnb, X, Apple, and Google — has explored stablecoin integration into payments technology since early 2025, according to Fortune.</p><p>The scale of the market these companies are moving into is substantial. The global stablecoin market cap surged to a record $320 billion in March 2026, according to CryptoTicker. For context, when Libra was announced in 2019, the entire stablecoin sector was worth barely $1 billion, according to Cointribune. That is a roughly 320-fold expansion in under seven years — a trajectory that has transformed stablecoins from a niche crypto instrument into infrastructure that mainstream financial institutions and technology companies are now actively building on.</p><p>The Stripe connection adds another layer to the story. Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge for $1.1 billion in October 2024, according to Cointribune. Stripe's subsidiary Bridge subsequently obtained conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in February 2026. With Stripe's CEO sitting on Meta's board and Stripe handling tax reporting for Meta's stablecoin payouts, the two companies' growing entanglement in this space is difficult to miss.</p><h2>Why Colombia and the Philippines?</h2><p>The choice of pilot markets is not incidental. Colombia and the Philippines are both countries where cross-border payment friction is high and where remittances represent a meaningful share of household income for many people. Traditional international wire transfers and remittance services charge fees that can significantly erode the value of payments moving across borders. Stablecoins, in theory, offer a faster and lower-cost alternative — though the requirement that creators use third-party exchanges to convert USDC into local currency reintroduces some of that complexity.</p><p>For Meta's creator ecosystem specifically, the ability to receive payouts in a dollar-pegged stablecoin without waiting for traditional banking rails could be a meaningful improvement, particularly for creators in markets where local currency volatility is a concern. Whether creators in those markets adopt the option in meaningful numbers will be an important early signal of the program's viability.</p><h2>What Comes Next</h2><p>Meta has not announced a timeline for expanding the stablecoin payout program beyond Colombia and the Philippines, nor has the company detailed plans to add additional stablecoins, blockchains, or payout options. The current rollout is explicitly described as an exploration — the Meta spokesperson's use of the phrase "exploring how stablecoins could become part of our suite of options" signals that this is a pilot, not a full product launch.</p><p>What is clear is that Meta is moving carefully and within existing regulatory structures rather than attempting to reshape those structures as it did with Libra. The use of USDC — a regulated, widely adopted stablecoin — rather than a proprietary token is the most visible expression of that caution. So is the decision to rely on third-party wallets and third-party exchanges rather than building out Meta-controlled on and off-ramps.</p><p>Whether that cautious, infrastructure-light approach can scale into something transformative for Meta's payments ambitions remains to be seen. But in the four years since Diem's assets were sold off for $200 million, the regulatory and market landscape has shifted enough that Meta's re-entry into stablecoins no longer looks like a long shot — it looks like the company catching up to an industry that kept moving without it.</p><p>For more tech news, visit our <a href=\"/news\">news section</a>.</p><h2>Stablecoins, Productivity, and the Future of Getting Paid</h2><p>How you get paid — and how quickly you can access your earnings — is a foundational question for anyone building a career in the creator economy or working across borders. Meta's stablecoin rollout is part of a broader shift in how global payments infrastructure is being rebuilt, with direct implications for financial autonomy and the tools available to independent workers. Staying informed about these changes is part of staying competitive. <a href=\"/#waitlist\">Join the Moccet waitlist to stay ahead of the curve.</a></p>", "excerpt": "Meta has quietly rolled out USDC stablecoin payouts for creators in Colombia and the Philippines via the Solana and Polygon blockchain networks, four years after the collapse of its Libra project. The move follows the 2025 passage of the GENIUS Act and a broader wave of corporate stablecoin adoption. Rather than issuing a proprietary token, Meta is integrating Circle's existing USDC infrastructure through third-party partners including Stripe.", "keywords": ["Meta stablecoin", "USDC payments", "Libra Diem crypto", "Meta creator payouts", "GENIUS Act stablecoin"], "slug": "meta-rolls-out-stablecoin-payments-four-years-after-libra-collapse" } ```