- Meta plans to integrate third-party dollar-pegged stablecoin payments into Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram in late 2026.
- Stripe is a lead candidate to provide the backend infrastructure, following Stripe CEO Patrick Collison joining Meta’s board and the firm’s acquisition of Bridge.
- The initiative aims to leverage Meta’s 3 billion users to create a low-fee, cross-border payment system, reviving goals previously held by the failed Libra project.
In a payments race already heating up inside apps like Telegram and X, Meta is preparing its own stablecoin push, aiming to bring dollar-pegged crypto payments to Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram later this year, according to three people familiar with the plans.
The company is looking to plug in a third-party provider to run the back-end of stablecoin payments and support a new wallet experience.
One source said Meta wants to begin the integration early in the second half of the year. Another said Meta has issued a request for proposals to outside firms, with Stripe viewed as a leading candidate to pilot the effort.
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Stablecoins as a Better Payment Option
Stripe has existing commercial ties with Meta and bought stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge last year. Stripe CEO Patrick Collison also joined Meta’s board in April 2025.
If Meta follows through, stablecoins would give it a faster, cheaper set of payment rails than traditional banking and card networks, potentially lowering fees for in-app commerce and enabling smoother cross-border transfers.
The move would also revive a long-running ambition of Mark Zuckerberg, that is, using Meta’s social networks to move money as easily as messages.
Recall that that was the underlying logic behind Libra, Meta’s earlier payments project, which sought to build a global payments layer tied to its platforms but never launched in its original form after regulatory pushback.
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