TL;DR

Meta plans 2026 stablecoin payments via outside partner, not issuing its own.
Unlike 2019’s ambitious Libra, Meta now avoids direct financial regulatory exposure.
Stripe leads as partner, building on Bridge acquisition and Collison’s Meta board seat.

Six years after the U.S. Congress effectively killed its digital currency project, Mark Zuckerberg is eyeing crypto payments again. Meta plans to embed a stablecoin payment layer across its platforms before the end of 2026, but the company has no intention of building or issuing anything on its own.

Three sources with direct knowledge of the plans described a structure where Meta brings in an outside partner to run the payment infrastructure while the company contributes what it has always owned: more than 3 billion active users.

When Meta unveiled Libra in 2019, the proposal to build a global digital currency backed by a basket of national currencies alarmed lawmakers in Washington.

Congress read it as a move by a social media company — already under fire from the Cambridge Analytica data scandal — to position itself as a systemically important financial actor. The political opposition proved insurmountable. The project narrowed in scope, changed its name to Diem, and shut down entirely in early 2022 when Meta sold off the remaining assets.

Meta sent a formal request for product to external vendors, asking them to administer stablecoin-based payments and deploy a new digital wallet inside its platforms.

One source identified Stripe as the frontrunner for the contract. The connection between the two companies runs deeper than a single deal: Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure specialist, in 2024, and Stripe founder Patrick Collison joined Meta’s board of directors in April 2025.

The Business Case Behind the Return

The numbers make the reasoning clear. Every transaction processed through a bank or a conventional payment network generates fees that eat into margins. WhatsApp already connects people across more than 180 countries. 

Instagram and Facebook both offer buying and selling tools. Layering stablecoins onto existing infrastructure lets Meta process cross-border payments directly, cutting out banking intermediaries and the costs attached to them.

X and Telegram follow the same logic. Both platforms are building toward an all-in-one app model where users handle payments, transfers, and purchases without ever leaving the interface. Meta understands that race and knows its advantage does not come from the token technology itself — it comes from the audience already inside its apps every day.

The regulatory environment added another reason to act now

The GENIUS Act, advanced during the Trump administration, created the first formal legal foundation for stablecoin issuers in the United States. The legislation opened the market to private participants without the legal ambiguity that buried Libra before it ever launched. Regulators are still finalizing the specific rules governing issuers, but the policy direction moved clearly toward welcoming new entrants rather than blocking them.

Meta arrives at 2026 in a fundamentally different position than it held in 2019. The company no longer needs to persuade anyone that the world requires a new global currency. Its platforms already occupy daily life for billions of people, its prospective partner brings proven technical infrastructure, and the entire structure keeps Meta one step removed from direct regulatory exposure. As one source put it, the company wants to be in the business — just not standing at the front of the target.

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Filed under: News - @ February 24, 2026 7:24 pm