Project “Zuck Bucks”: Meta plans virtual coin after cryptocurrency flop

Meta has drawn up plans to introduce virtual coins, token, and lending services to its apps, as Facebook pursues its finance ambitions despite the collapse of a project to launch acryptocurrencies.

The popularity of its main social networking products such as Facebook and Instagram is falling, as a trend that threatens its $118 billion-a-year ad-based business.

Several people familiar with the efforts say that Facebook's financial arm, Meta Financial Technologies, has been exploring the creation of a virtual currency for the metaverse.

Some people said that this is not likely to be a coin based on the ledger. Instead, Meta is leaning toward introducing in-app token that would be centrally controlled by the company, like the robux currency in the popular children's game Roblox.

According to company memos and people close to the plans, Meta is looking into the creation of social token or redemption token, which could be issued as rewards for meaningful contributions. The creator coins might be associated with particular people on the photo-sharing app.

Meta has been exploring more traditional financial services with a focus on helping to provide small business loans at attractive rates, according to several people familiar with the initiative. The company has held discussions with potential lending partners before, one of the people said.

Most of the efforts are in the early stages of being discussed and could change or be dropped. The Financial Times reported that the social network would soon support NFTs.

Meta plans to launch a pilot for posting and sharing NFTs on Facebook in May, according to a memo shared internally last week. This will be followed by testing of a feature that will allow membership in Facebook groups based on NFT ownership and another that will allow minting NFTs.

Fees and/or ads may be monetized in the future according to an internal document.

Facebook didn't comment.

On the day it revealed users were spending more time on newer rivals, such as short-form video app TikTok, Meta lost more than $220 billion from its market valuation.