Meta’s shutting down its digital wallet, Novi

Image: Facebook

The pilot for Novi, the company's digital wallet and the last piece of its troubled cryptocurrencies project, has ended. Meta is asking users to withdraw their funds as soon as possible because the wallet is shutting down on September 1st, 2022.

Users will no longer be able to add money to their accounts from July 21st. Meta will try to transfer funds to a bank account if someone forgets to withdraw their balance.

In October of last year, Meta introduced the small pilot of Novi to users in the US. Regulatory challenges forced the company to use the Paxos stable coin instead of the Meta-backed Diem. At the end of 2021, Meta made it clear that it still planned on adding support for Diem at a later date.

Diem had a different name before Facebook was known as Meta. The project was renamed Diem in order to distance itself from the social network because of its ties to Facebook.

The US Senate called on Meta to shut down its project after it was launched in October of 2021. One month after David Marcus left Meta, he left again. The project ended at the beginning of this year after Diem sold its assets for $200 million.

Meta isn't abandoning the idea of developing its own digital assets and wallet after Diem. Meta will use the technology it developed in conjunction with the project on new products, such as digital collectibles, as it looks towards building the metaverse, according to a statement from Meta's spokeswoman.

Meta has begun to support NFTs on Facebook for creators based in the US, as well as testing NFTs on social media. According to a report, the company is working on a digital currency that isn't based on the block chain.

A digital wallet that could help you manage and store digital clothing, art, videos, music, experiences, virtual events, and more was teased last month. The goal of the Metaverse Standards Forum is to establish industry-wide standards for virtual reality and augmented reality experiences.