Facebook shuts down cryptocurrency wallet

Facebook’s holding company, Meta, is shutting down its Novi cryptocurrency wallet after it only made it to the piloting phase of the project, Bloomberg reported.

Both the Novi app and the wallet on WhatsApp will no longer be available come 1 September 2022, and Meta is asking its users to withdraw their funds “as soon as possible”.

Users will also lose access to their transaction history and other data when the pilot ends.

A company spokesperson said that Meta still plans to use Novi’s technology for other products, including its metaverse project.

Meta began testing Novi in October 2021, trading the Diem cryptocurrency token it once favoured for Paxos Trust’s USDP stablecoin so that users in the US and Guatemala — where it is piloting the project — could transact.

The company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, faced scrutiny from congress over whether then-Facebook would launch Diem, then known as Libra, without regulatory approval.

The regulatory scrutiny led to Meta scaling back its cryptocurrency ambitions.

However, Meta is looking at other digital currency projects. It started testing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Instagram and rolled out support for NFTs on Facebook.

According to The Verge, Meta is developing a digital currency dubbed “Zuck Bucks”, which is said to be independent of blockchain technology.

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