Meta Stopped Novi Operations. A Crypto Crash Victim or is it Zuckerberg’s Inability?

 

No more Novi operations from Meta— yet another project abandonment by Zuckerberg

Come the first day of September, the pilot cryptocurrency digital wallet facility of Meta, Novi, will cease to exist. The extremely powerful social networking firm of Zuckerberg already has enough trouble on its hands. Much of the trouble is sourced from its highly ambitious, if not reckless, periodic ventures of more than one kind. It is also true that Meta at different points in time is paying the price for such ventures. The latest one is no less grievous and at a time, when the highly volatile cryptocurrency market experiencing a devious crypto crash.

In a notification, Meta informed the Novi account holders that on 21 July 2022, they would not be able to add funds to their accounts. It seems that the ‘tradition’ continues in Zuckerberg’s firm. This is especially so because Facebook in early 2022 dispensed off Diem (renamed from Libra and Calibra), a cryptocurrency that it had started with its partners. The venture survived less than three years. Facebook/Meta is also witnessing regular cases of exit by top-notch cryptocurrency experts, which obviously does not add to the glory of the global tech giant.

It is not that the closure of Novi has taken Meta by surprise. Novi was supposed to promote “frictionless” payments with Diem but even at the initial stage, it has faced legal hurdles that the program found extremely difficult to cross the minor stages in the cryptocurrency market, let alone survive the crypto crash. It managed to tide over the problem by ensuring collaboration with Coinbase and replacing Diem with Paxos USDP stablecoin. This time Meta seeks to utilize the technology at Novi’s disposal for implementing Zuckerberg’s mega-dream of the metaverse.

Beyond the nitty-gritty of Novi’s impending closure and the ongoing discussions on the issue, there lies another important question. Is it going to happen because of the recent disaster in the crypto world? Or, has it got something to do with Zuckerberg’s inability to steer his company? There is huge concern about the beleaguered cryptocurrencies and crypto trade and large-scale investors are on a spree to sell off crypto assets. Reports say that receiving a devastating blow from the crash, one of the largest crypto companies, Three Arrows, has filed for bankruptcy to protect its US assets from creditors in the nation. No less perturbing is the news that another giant crypto platform, Celsius, has chosen to freeze withdrawals and transfers for not being able to negotiate with the crash properly. Where one locates Zuckerberg and Meta in this scenario is a question worth paying attention to.