Meta Revives Crypto Payouts with USDC, Four Years After Libra’s Collapse

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Meta pays Facebook creators in USDC four years after Libra collapsed

As an analyst, I’m watching Meta’s latest move with interest. They’ve started paying some creators using USDC, a stablecoin, through Stripe – and they’re doing it on both the Solana and Polygon blockchains. This is significant because it’s Meta’s first official crypto payout program, especially considering they shelved their Libra project four years ago due to regulatory hurdles. It suggests they’re cautiously re-entering the crypto space, likely learning from past experiences.

Summary

  • Meta USDC creator payouts launched April 29 for select creators in Colombia and the Philippines, with eligible users able to link a MetaMask, Phantom, or Binance wallet and receive earnings in Circle’s USDC directly.
  • Stripe handles the backend and provides tax reporting for the transactions. Meta emphasized it is not issuing its own stablecoin and is using Circle’s existing USDC, which has a market cap exceeding $77 billion.
  • The move reverses Meta’s retreat from crypto payments: Libra was launched in 2019, rebranded as Diem, and shut down entirely in 2022 after regulators blocked every path to launch.

As a crypto investor, I found it really interesting to see Meta quietly roll out USDC payouts for creators on April 29th. Apparently, eligible creators in Colombia and the Philippines can now get paid in USDC, and they have a choice between Solana and Polygon for receiving it. It looks like Stripe, who bought Bridge last year, is handling all the payments and even generating tax documents. Meta was quick to clarify they aren’t launching their own stablecoin – they’re simply using Circle’s USDC, which is already a major player in the stablecoin world.

According to crypto.news, Meta is moving forward with its plans to use stablecoins for payments, as announced in February. They selected Stripe as their main partner after a thorough review process. A key part of this rollout is the choice of Solana, a blockchain known for its speed – transactions are completed in about 400 milliseconds with very low fees (under $0.001). In fact, earlier in 2026, over $10.5 billion in USDC stablecoins were created on Solana, making it the leading network for USDC transactions, even surpassing Ethereum. Given that Meta paid creators almost $3 billion in 2025, even shifting some of those payments to stablecoins could significantly increase activity on both Solana and Polygon.

Meta’s new approach is a deliberate shift from its failed 2019 Libra project. Libra stumbled because Meta attempted to control the entire system – the currency, the digital wallet, and the transaction network – which gave regulators a clear target to shut it down. This time, Meta is positioning itself as a user of existing services. Circle provides the USDC currency, Stripe handles the financial transfers, and Solana and Polygon manage the transactions. Meta’s role is to distribute this system to its massive user base of over 3 billion people on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

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2026-04-30 21:46