Tech Giant Meta To Shut Down Digital Wallet Experiment Novi, Says Metaverse Project Coming Next: Report

Meta is reportedly shutting down its crypto wallet years after Mark Zuckerberg took a grilling from Congress over Meta’s future projects.

According to a new report by Bloomberg, Meta’s digital asset wallet Novi will shut down on September 1st and will prevent users from adding funds starting July 21st.

The tech giant advises Novi users to withdraw their funds as soon as possible.

Although Meta is scrapping its digital wallet protocol, the tech giant says it plans to use Novi’s technology in future products, including its metaverse project, according to the company spokesperson cited by Bloomberg.

“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 Web 3.0 space because we are very optimistic about the value these technologies can bring to people and businesses in the metaverse.”

Novi first launched in October 2021 for customers in parts of the US and Guatemala, initially allowing users to trade stablecoin Pax Dollar (USDP).

Originally, Novi was supposed to support the Diem token, then called Libra, but eventually made the switch to USDP. David Marcus, a former Meta employee who headed the Novi project, said in October that Novi was meant to provide a real-world use case for USDP.

“We’re doing a pilot to test core feature functions, and our operational capabilities in customer care and compliance. We’re also hopeful this will demonstrate a new stablecoin use case (as a payments instrument) beyond how they are typically used today.”

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