Zuckerberg Re-enters the Stablecoin Arena, but the Times Have Changed
- Core Viewpoint: Meta plans to re-enter the stablecoin space in a more cautious and compliant manner, by integrating third-party service providers to offer payment services. This stands in stark contrast to the aggressive strategy it employed when leading the Libra project in 2019.
- Key Elements:
- Meta has issued product proposals to third-party companies, seeking partnerships to manage stablecoin-based payment services and launch a new wallet. The strategy has shifted from "issuing its own token and building its own chain" to "leveraging existing infrastructure."
- Fintech company Stripe (which has acquired the stablecoin payments platform Bridge) is considered a potential service provider. Its stablecoin payment volume reached approximately $400 billion in 2025.
- Unlike the Libra project in 2019, which faced strong global regulatory resistance and ultimately failed, the current US regulatory framework (such as the GENIUS Act) is clearer, and dollar-backed stablecoins are viewed as tools to strengthen the US dollar's position.
- The current stablecoin market is mature and highly competitive, with USDT and USDC dominating. Traditional and tech giants like BlackRock, Fidelity, and PayPal have already entered the field.
- Although Meta possesses the distribution advantage of its vast user network, it has shifted from being a "narrative leader" to a "business participant." It is difficult to replicate the grand vision of reshaping the global payment system that it once had.
Original | Odaily
Author｜Azuma（@azuma_eth）
Zuckerberg is making a comeback.
A CoinDesk report this morning revealed that sources indicate Meta plans to re-enter the stablecoin space later this year. The company has already issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to third-party firms to help manage stablecoin-based payment services.
The Stillborn Libra
This is not Meta's first attempt at stablecoins.
As early as June 2019, Meta (then called Facebook), in collaboration with 28 companies and organizations from technology, finance, and social impact sectors including Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Uber, launched the Libra Association. The plan was to introduce Libra, a global digital currency backed by a basket of fiat currencies, on the Libra blockchain.
At that time, blockchain concepts were just entering the mainstream consciousness, and stablecoins existed but had not yet gained significant scale. The traditional world's attitude towards blockchain and stablecoins was primarily one of cautious observation. However, Meta recognized their potential to reshape the financial system, becoming the first tech giant to dive in headfirst. It aimed to leverage its user base of billions and Libra's innovative design to completely overhaul the global payment network, creating another "global infrastructure-level" growth story.
Unfortunately, Libra's concept of a "supranational currency" met with fierce opposition from central banks and financial regulators worldwide. Citing concerns over weakened monetary sovereignty, threats to financial stability, and increased AML/KYC risks, countries took a hardline stance against it. The U.S. Congress even required Mark Zuckerberg himself to testify multiple times. Given Facebook's entanglement in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal at the time, Zuckerberg faced overt and deliberate hostility during the hearings, which objectively increased the difficulty for Libra to gain approval.
Under immense pressure, initial partners like Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal announced their withdrawals one after another. Facebook was forced to strategically retrench — renaming Libra to Diem and repositioning it from a "new digital currency" backed by a basket of fiat currencies to a single "U.S. dollar stablecoin."
But this survival strategy did not work. In 2022, assets related to Diem were sold by Meta (which had already rebranded by then), marking the ultimate failure of this premature "global digital currency revolution" and Meta's exit from the stablecoin race. It is worth noting that although the Libra/Diem project ended, the original team used the project's development outcome, the Move programming language, to build well-known Layer 1 projects like Sui and Aptos today — the spillover of talent and technology is the true legacy Meta left for the industry.
Looking back, we can summarize the reason for Libra's demise in one sentence — a tech giant with billions of users, at a time when the new technological concept was not yet fully understood, aggressively pushed against the boundaries of the traditional fiat currency system's power, ultimately succumbing to its forceful counterattack.
Returning to Stablecoins
According to CoinDesk's report, Meta's plan to re-enter the stablecoin arena this time is not public. However, sources familiar with the matter revealed that, learning from the failure of Libra/Diem, Meta plans to integrate a third-party supplier to help manage stablecoin-based payment services and launch a new wallet.
The source mentioned: "They want to do this, but they don't want to be directly involved."
This statement itself reveals a fundamental strategic shift for Meta, which stumbled here before — moving from "issuing its own coin, building its own chain, creating its own ecosystem" to "leveraging existing infrastructure, operating within a compliant framework for front-end distribution and scenario integration."
The source also revealed that fintech company Stripe, which acquired the stablecoin payment infrastructure platform Bridge last year, could be a candidate service provider for Meta's return to stablecoins. Stripe is a long-term partner of Meta, and its CEO Patrick Collison joined Meta's board in April 2025.
In its 2025 annual summary letter released yesterday, Stripe disclosed that its stablecoin payment volume doubled year-over-year to approximately $400 billion. Although the cryptocurrency market performed poorly during the same period, with the expansion of real-world applications, stablecoin usage is gradually decoupling from crypto asset price cycles.
Mr. Zuck, Times Have Changed!
If 2019 was still the wild frontier of stablecoin development, by 2026, the market has entered a period of mature order.
- Back then, stablecoins were merely a medium of exchange within the cryptocurrency world; today, they have become the foundational layer for cross-border payments, on-chain settlements, DeFi collateral, and real-world asset tokenization.
- Back then, regulators were ambiguous, fearful, and hostile towards the concept of "stablecoins"; today, the GENIUS Act has been passed, compliant issuance paths are gradually becoming clear, and dollar stablecoins are even seen as tools to strengthen the international status of the U.S. dollar.
- Back then, the traditional world was always watching from the sidelines; today, financial giants and tech giants have entered the arena one after another.
Native stablecoins like USDT and USDC have long built solid moats in terms of scale and distribution; traditional players like BlackRock and Fidelity, as well as tech players like PayPal and Stripe, have all entered the field; Meta's direct competitor in social products, X, is expected to soon integrate more comprehensive cryptocurrency trading services directly into its front end.
Zuckerberg was once the "first willing to eat the crab" in the traditional world, but Libra back then died due to institutional resistance from moving too fast. Now, re-entering with a more cautious posture, he has long lost the first-mover advantage.
This time, Zuckerberg is no longer facing a blank market that needs to be defined, but a relatively crowded, mature track with gradually clear rules and numerous giants. Meta's identity has also shifted from a "narrative leader" to a "business participant."
With its massive user network, Meta still holds a unique advantage in distribution. A second attempt may not necessarily fail again. However, the unfortunate reality is that even if successful, it will undoubtedly fail to realize the grand vision Zuckerberg once had.
