In 2019, Facebook announced Libra. An ambitious attempt to create a new global digital currency that could potentially be used by billions of people across its platforms.
The reaction was immediate. Regulators and governments questioned what it would mean for a private technology company of that scale to have influence over a global form of money. Libra was eventually renamed Diem, and the project was ultimately abandoned.
But fast forward to today and the interesting part is this: the idea behind it didn’t disappear.
Stablecoins have moved considerably closer to mainstream finance. The US now has federal payment-stablecoin legislation through the GENIUS Act, creating a regulatory framework around who can issue them and how they must be backed.
And perhaps the biggest full-circle moment? Meta itself has started experimenting with stablecoins again, this time using existing infrastructure rather than attempting to create another Libra. In 2026, it began offering USDC payouts to some creators in Colombia and the Philippines.
That tells us something important.
Libra may have been too early, and perhaps too ambitious, but the conversation it started is now becoming reality in a very different form.
The question is no longer simply “will money become digital?”
Increasingly, it is: who builds the infrastructure, who controls it, and how much choice will individuals have over the money they use?