Report: Facebook to Announce Cryptocurrency Project This Month

Social media giant Facebook will reportedly announce its cryptocurrency project this month, allowing employees to take part of their salary in the coin, CNBC reports on June 5.

Citing a report by The Information, CNBC states that Facebook furthermore plans to cede control of the cryptocurrency to outside parties in order to ensure that the digital asset will not be completely centralized.

Third-party organizations will purportedly pay as much as $10 million dollars for the opportunity to act as a node — to validate transactions — on the network for Facebook’s native token.

The rumored stablecoin — which will purportedly be integrated as a payment tool on WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram — will also be accessible through physical ATM-like machines, says The Information.

Facebook’s own cryptocurrency has been the subject of much speculation over the past several months, as the company has revealed little about the project. Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is in talks with Facebook about its upcoming stablecoin.

In May, Facebook reportedly acquired the “Libra” trademark for the secretive project. Sources familiar with the matter claimed that Facebook was recruiting financial firms to develop the coin and that the project codename is Libra.

Later that month, Facebook also registered a new financial tech firm, Libra Networks LLC, with the Geneva Commercial Register in Switzerland.