Meta to shutter its Novi digital wallet and it now seems that the company is calling it quits with Libra.
Meta to Shutter Its Novi Digital Wallet
The tech giant, Meta, is calling time on its crypto ambitions for the time being. The company announced that it is now set to shut down its Novi digital wallet on the 1st of September, and in the process, draw a line on its Libra project effectively.
The project Novi, which underwent a small pilot time in the united states and Guatemala towards the end of last year, used Paxos Trust Co’s USDP stablecoin to enable users to easily make transfers to one another through a mobile payment application.
And since its inception, the project has received a huge degree of regulatory attention. For instance, in 2020, leaders of the G7 group of nations were against the launch of Facebook’s Libra stablecoin which is Novi’s predecessor not until they could make a decision on whether it is was regulated properly.
Meta has announced to users to withdraw their balances from the platform as soon as they can as they will be unable to do that after the deadline which is set for September 1. And after the 21st of July, users also will be unable to transfer money into their accounts.
What Novi Users in the US And Guatemala Need To Do
Novi users both in the US and Guatemala would now head on to the Novi platform to withdraw their balances if they don’t want their balances stuck on the platform. Users on the other hand that are privacy conscious can also request a copy of their data that are stored on Novi which of course will no longer be accessible after the end of the pilot.
Initially, the project was intended to function through Meta’s purpose-built stablecoin Diem. The switch to Paxos however was made after the company observed opposition from the US congress.
The recent announcement however should not come as a surprise to many as Meta in particular has been offloading assets related to its digital assets projects for some time now. The tech company has also sold assets that are related to the Diem project back in January 2022 to silver gate capital for a fee of $200 million.
Meta’s Comment Regarding the Shutdown of Its Project
The company said in a statement emailed to Bloomberg that ‘we are already leveraging the years spent on building capabilities for Meta overall on blockchain and introducing new products, such as digital collectibles. 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.’
The company most recently has announced a surge into the world of NFTs as it has reportedly added new features that are related to NFTs to Instagram as part of the company’s push into the metaverse.
