Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is planning to shut down the social media company’s digital wallet payments pilot Novi on September 1, just eleven months after the company debuted it. According to an announcement on the company’s news section website, users of the Novi crypto wallet were sent a link to withdraw their money from the platform “as soon as possible.” The company said people could transfer their remaining balance to their bank account or withdraw the digital funds as cash where applicable. Starting from July 21, users will lose the ability to add money to their accounts. Novi’s WhatsApp account and the Novi app will also become unavailable. Once the pilot ends, users will not have access to their transaction history and other data. Users will also be unable to access their accounts after September 1, which means they won’t be able to retrieve account information like their transaction history. End of Novi Project Launched in October 2021, Novi was launched in beta version with the help of Coinbase, which also acted as Meta’s “custody partner” on the project. At the time, Meta marketed Novi as a crypto wallet that allows people to send and receive money via Paxos Dollar, or USDP, stablecoin. At one point, Meta planned to issue and accept the Diem cryptocurrency, which was backed by a Facebook-led association, in conjunction with the Novi wallet. However, the Diem project faced intense scrutiny from regulators,...
