Meta to shut Novi digital wallet pilot

The company warned users that deposits close on July 21, while full access ends September 1.

Meta has decided to permanently close its Novi digital wallet, the last remaining piece of its troubled cryptocurrency project. 

“The Novi pilot is ending soon. Novi will no longer be available for use after September 1”, compared on Novi's website, and the company is asking users to withdraw their funds “as soon as possible”. Users will lose access to their accounts in September and will no longer be able to add money to Novi starting July 21. If someone forgets to withdraw the remaining balance, Meta says it will “attempt to transfer” the funds to the bank account or debit card added to the service.

Meta launched Novi's pilot program last October to users in the United States and Guatemala, with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase acting as its custody partner. Novi was originally built to support fast and free transactions using the Meta-backed cryptocurrency Diem – also known with the name Libra – but instead, regulatory challenges forced the company to partner with Coinbase to use the stablecoin Paxos (USDP).

US Senate members called Meta to shut down its Novi project shortly after its launch in October 2021, citing that the company “cannot be trusted with cryptocurrency management”. David Marcus, Meta's head of cryptocurrency projects, left the company a month later. Diem sold his assets for approximately $ 200 million earlier this year, marking the end of the project.

Last week, Meta announced that Facebook Pay has officially been renamed Meta Pay as the "first step" toward the company creating a digital wallet for the metaverse.