Social media giant Facebook is looking into developing its own stablecoin for money transfers. Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, that the company will initially focus on the Indian market, allowing users to transfer money via a flat-pegged cryptocurrency on WhatsApp, the messaging app Facebook acquired in 2014. Though the report also noted that the actual launch of the stablecoin could be set way later, since the initiative is at a strategic planning stage.
Facebook established a blockchain team in May, with goals to explore the emerging technology. Earlier this month, the company posted five job openings, seeking to recruit more members to its blockchain team with expertise on data science, software engineering and marketing.
“If Facebook launches the stablecoin they are reportedly building, it will quickly become the most used product in crypto,” tweeted Anthony Pompliano, crypto analyst and founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital Assets. “The Indian government has been fighting crypto too so things are about to get very, very interesting.”
Meanwhile, other global messaging applications, including Kakao, LINE and Telegram also revealed plans to move into the blockchain world. Japan’s LINE became one of the first publicly traded companies to launch its own blockchain mainnet with a cryptocurrency, using the LINK token.