Zuckerberg is fighting again for stablecoins, but the era has changed.

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Azuma (@azuma_eth)

Zuckerberg is making a comeback.

CoinDesk reports this morning that sources reveal Meta plans to re-enter the stablecoin space later this year. The company has already issued a product request for proposals to third-party firms to help manage its stablecoin-based payment services.

The Dead on Arrival Libra

This is not Meta’s first attempt to enter the stablecoin market.

Back in June 2019, Meta (then still called Facebook) partnered with Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Uber, and 25 other companies and organizations from the tech, finance, and social impact sectors to launch the Libra Association, aiming to introduce a global digital currency called Libra, backed by a basket of fiat currencies, on the Libra blockchain.

At that time, blockchain was just beginning to enter mainstream awareness. Stablecoins had appeared but had not yet scaled. The traditional world remained cautious, mostly observing the emerging technology. However, Meta saw the potential to reshape the financial system and became the first tech giant to actively participate, hoping to leverage its billions of users and Libra’s iterative design to fundamentally disrupt global payment networks and create a “global infrastructure-level” growth story.

Unfortunately, Libra’s concept of a “super-sovereign currency” faced fierce opposition from central banks and financial regulators worldwide. Concerns over weakening monetary sovereignty, threats to financial stability, and increased AML/KYC risks led many countries to strongly oppose it. The U.S. Congress even called for Zuckerberg to testify multiple times — amid Facebook’s 2019 Cambridge data leak scandal, Zuckerberg faced overt hostility during hearings, which objectively increased the difficulty for Libra to gain approval.

Under pressure, early partners like Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal withdrew, and Facebook was forced to scale back — rebranding Libra as Diem, shifting from a basket-backed “new digital currency” to a single “USD stablecoin.”

But this survival strategy failed. In 2022, Meta (by then renamed) sold off Diem-related assets, marking the end of this premature “global digital currency revolution,” and Meta exited the stablecoin race. Notably, although the Libra/Diem project ended, the original team used the development work and the Move language to build now-famous Layer 1 projects like Sui and Aptos — talent and technology spillover remains Meta’s true legacy in the industry.

Looking back, we can summarize Libra’s failure in one sentence — A tech giant with billions of users, at a time when the new technology concept was not yet fully understood, aggressively pushed the boundaries of traditional fiat currency authority and was ultimately defeated by strong regulatory backlash.

Making a Comeback in Stablecoins

According to CoinDesk, Meta’s plan to re-enter the stablecoin arena has not been publicly announced, but sources reveal that, learning from Libra/Diem’s failure, Meta intends to partner with a third-party provider to manage its stablecoin-based payment services and launch a new wallet.

One source said: “They want to do this, but they don’t want to be directly involved.”

This statement already hints at a fundamental strategic shift for Meta — from “issuing its own currency, building its own chain, and developing its own ecosystem” to “leveraging infrastructure and operating within a compliant framework for front-end distribution and scenario integration.”

The same source also mentioned that Stripe, a fintech company that acquired stablecoin payment infrastructure platform Bridge last year, could be a candidate service provider for Meta’s re-entry into the stablecoin space. Stripe has been a long-term partner of Meta; its CEO Patrick Collison joined Meta’s board in April 2025.

In their 2025 annual report, Stripe disclosed that its stablecoin payment volume doubled year-over-year to approximately $400 billion. Although the crypto market was sluggish during the same period, the expansion of real-world applications is gradually decoupling stablecoin usage from crypto asset price cycles.

Zuckerberg, the times have changed!

If 2019 was still the wild frontier for stablecoin development, by 2026, the market has entered a mature phase.

• Back then, stablecoins were just a trading medium within the crypto space; now, they form the foundational layer for cross-border payments, on-chain settlements, DeFi collateral, and real-world asset mapping.
• Back then, regulators were vague, fearful, and hostile toward “stablecoins”; today, the GENIUS Act has been passed, and compliant issuance pathways are becoming clearer. USD stablecoins are even seen as tools to strengthen the dollar’s international standing.
• Back then, traditional finance watched from afar; now, financial giants and tech companies are actively involved.

Native stablecoins like USDT and USDC have already built a solid moat in scale and distribution; traditional players like BlackRock and Fidelity, as well as tech giants like PayPal and Stripe, are now in the game; Meta’s direct competitors on social platforms, like X, are expected to soon integrate more comprehensive crypto trading services directly into their front-end.

Zuckerberg was once the “first to take a risk” in the traditional world, but Libra’s overreach led to its demise due to regulatory resistance. Now, re-entering with a more cautious approach, Meta has already lost its first-mover advantage.

This time, Zuckerberg faces a mature, crowded market with clearer rules and many industry giants, transforming Meta’s role from “narrative leader” to “business participant.”

With its vast user network, Meta still holds an advantage in distribution. A second entry might not fail again, but even if successful, it’s unlikely to realize Zuckerberg’s grand original vision.