Quick Insights

  • Meta has launched USDC stablecoin payouts for select creators in Colombia and the Philippines, with payments processed over the Solana and Polygon networks and Stripe handling the backend infrastructure and crypto tax reporting.
  • Polygon confirmed the rollout is expected to expand to more than 160 markets by the end of 2026, potentially making Meta one of the largest USDC distribution channels for individual earners globally.
  • Unlike its failed Libra project, Meta is not issuing its own token. It is using Circle's regulated USDC stablecoin, sidestepping the regulatory friction that ended the earlier effort in January 2022.

Meta has reentered the stablecoin market, launching USDC payouts for select creators in Colombia and the Philippines four years after regulators killed its Libra project. Eligible creators can link a compatible crypto wallet to their Facebook payout account and receive earnings directly in USDC on either the Solana or Polygon networks, with Stripe powering the payment backend and handling crypto-specific tax reporting alongside Meta's standard forms.

Both pilot markets were chosen deliberately. Colombia and the Philippines have large populations of creators who earn in US dollars but face high fees and slow processing times converting those earnings through traditional banking channels. Stablecoins settle across borders in seconds at a fraction of the cost of wire transfers. Meta does not offer a built-in off-ramp, so creators who want local currency must transfer USDC to a third-party exchange and cash out themselves.

Polygon Confirms 160 Markets Expected by End of 2026

Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron confirmed Wednesday that the payout program is expected to reach more than 160 countries by the end of the year. If that rollout happens, Meta's network of more than 3 billion users across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp would make it one of the largest pipelines for USDC distribution to individual earners anywhere in the world. Facebook paid creators nearly $3 billion in 2025, a 35% increase on the prior year, giving a sense of the payment volumes that could eventually move through stablecoin rails.

Stripe, which acquired stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge in early 2025 for $1.1 billion, was selected as Meta's infrastructure partner after an RFP process that began in February 2026. "Businesses can now send stablecoin payouts directly to customers using Link," said Jay Shah, Stripe's head of Link. "We're already partnering with Meta so their creators can receive stablecoins in their Link wallets in countries like the Philippines and Colombia."

This Time Meta Is Using Someone Else's Stablecoin

When Meta announced Libra in 2019, it proposed issuing its own stablecoin backed by a basket of currencies and controlled by a corporate consortium. The scale of Meta's user base immediately alarmed central banks and legislators across the US and Europe, who saw it as a threat to monetary sovereignty. By January 2022, the project had been renamed Diem and abandoned, with all assets sold to Silvergate Capital.

This time Meta is not issuing anything. It is plugging into Circle's USDC, a regulated stablecoin with $77.3 billion in market cap operating under the GENIUS Act framework signed into law in July 2025. The regulatory groundwork was built by others over years of lobbying, litigation and failed experiments. Meta is simply using it, which is precisely why this attempt looks more durable than the last one.

Shopify has begun allowing merchants to accept USDC. Western Union is preparing to launch its own dollar-backed stablecoin on Solana next month. Airbnb, Apple and Google have all explored stablecoin integrations since the Trump administration made crypto-friendly policy a priority after the GENIUS Act passed. What Meta's rollout adds to all of that is consumer-facing scale that most of those experiments still lack, and the prospect of stablecoin payments becoming a routine part of daily creator life rather than a niche product for crypto-native users.

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