Meta To Begin Stablecoin Integration in 2026 on Ethereum

Meta’s stablecoin integration plan and the Stripe question

The PYMNTS report, citing CoinDesk, said Meta has reached out to crypto infrastructure firms and asked for information as it weighs stablecoin payments, and that the effort could start early in the second half of 2026. The report said Meta is also considering launching a new wallet product, but it did not name which stablecoins or blockchains would be supported.

One use case highlighted in reporting is creator payouts, where stablecoins can cut friction for cross-border payments and reduce fees on smaller transfers, including payments under $1,000. That puts the project at the intersection of fintech plumbing and consumer platforms, and it would align with the broader trend of regulated firms experimenting with stablecoin settlement that we covered in our reporting on Visa’s USDC settlement rollout.

Stripe has surfaced as a potential contender in the vendor slot, and the report noted that Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison sits on Meta’s board. Stripe has been building stablecoin capabilities in recent years, including network support for USDC through its crypto payments stack, according to Stripe’s Pay with crypto documentation, and it has expanded its stablecoin infrastructure footprint through its Bridge acquisition.

Meta’s return to stablecoins would also reopen a chapter it tried to write first. The company was a key backer of the Libra project announced in 2019, later rebranded as Diem, before the effort was wound down, according to background on the Diem project.

The difference this time is that stablecoins are no longer a crypto-only feature. Big payments firms are already using dollar tokens for settlement and treasury workflows, and even consumer brands have launched their own tokens, including PayPal’s PYUSD announcement and the stablecoin settlement experiments across the industry.

Ethereum stablecoin rails and the “invisible infrastructure” thesis

Meta’s apps operate at consumer scale, and the user base is large enough that payments infrastructure can become invisible quickly. Wikipedia lists Facebook at about 3.04 billion monthly active users as of June 2025, a reminder of the distribution Meta could bring to any wallet-like feature inside its apps.

That scale is why a stablecoin integration matters even if most users never learn the word “Ethereum.” If stablecoin transfers become a background feature inside chat threads and creator dashboards, the winning outcome is not loud “adoption” narratives but blockchain rails that disappear behind familiar UI, and Ethereum is still where much of the deepest stablecoin liquidity and settlement activity lives.

Stablecoins are already large enough to function like crypto’s cash layer. DeFiLlama’s stablecoin dashboard shows about $308 billion outstanding, a pool that has grown into a core source of on-chain liquidity and a bridge between exchanges, DeFi, and payment workflows.

Policy also shapes which stablecoins can be distributed at scale, which is why the legal perimeter matters as much as the UI. For the U.S. policy lens on issuer rules and platform behavior, see our GENIUS Act stablecoin breakdown.

Centralized apps, decentralized money, and the freeze risk

The unresolved tension is governance, not bandwidth. A Meta wallet would sit inside a centralized account system that has long relied on identity, behavioral scoring, and content moderation, and stablecoins routed through that gate can inherit the platform’s controls, including reversals, freezes, and access restrictions.

For decentralization advocates, the worry is straightforward: the same conglomerate that built its business on user-level data now wants visibility into payments flows, and it can set policy unilaterally. Stablecoins can reduce fees and move money faster, but a centralized front end can also turn on-chain cash into a permissioned experience that feels decentralized only until it is inconvenient.

Regulation will shape how any rollout looks in the U.S. and abroad, from reserve standards to lawful order compliance for issuers and intermediaries, which is why our 2026 U.S. crypto regulation map matters more than the branding of any single wallet.

What remains unclear is which stablecoin issuers Meta would work with, whether the wallet would be custodial or user-controlled, which jurisdictions would be first, and what dispute and recovery policies would apply when transfers go wrong. Investors and users will be watching for partner announcements, a product timeline, and clear disclosure around data collection and account controls before any stablecoin feature goes live.