Meta Will Shut Down The Novi Wallet In September

Meta will shut down its Novi wallet and the final Libra element will be going out the door by September so let’s have a closer look at our latest Libra news.

Meta will shut down Novi, the company’s digital wallet payments pilot and will end the Libra stablecoin experiment a few years after the company unveiled the ambitions but then doomed the crypto payments gamble. Meta announced the news on the service’s website and texted users a link to the announcement urging them to withdraw their money as soon as possible. The users will lose the ability to add money to their accounts and the Whatsapp account as well as the Novi app will become unavailable but once the pilot ends, the users will not have access to their transaction history and data.

Novi known as Calibra was Meta’s wallet for the libra stablecoin which was revealed in 2019. the role shifted as regulatory pressure forced the stablecoin project to change course but Novi became a money-transfer pilot for the crypto remittances in 2020 but then never got beyond US and Guatemala. Meta decided to kill the Novi pilot with a plan to repurpose the technology for future products as well as more metaverse initiatives. Meta added:

“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 Web3 space because we are very optimistic about the value these technologies can bring to people and businesses in the metaverse.”

Meta started exploring efforts to support NFTs on its sites and scrapped the original plans for Novi and Calibra after facing regulatory pushback over the ability to combat money laundering but also protect consumers and to monitor the security and financial risks. It scaled back and rebranded the effort. David Marcus who led the project, departed Meta last year, and three years after unveiling Libra, the company sold the successor Diem project assets to the Silvergate Capital bank for $200 million. The closing of the Libra chapter came at a major downturn in crypto markets as the industry battles with layoffs and solvency issues.