Former PayPal president and Coinbase board member David Marcus is to head up a new blockchain unit at Facebook.
Marcus' change of direction is part of a wider executive reshufffle at Facebook as the company attempts to re-invent itself in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Marcus revealed the move in a tweet.
Marcus, who will be leading a team of fewer than a dozen people in his new role, joined Facebook in 2014 and led the team developing the Facebook Messenger app.
Applying his expertise from three years as head of mobile at PayPal, Marcus is credited with the introduction of Messenger's P2P payment platform and the subsequent implementation of business payments on the platform. He joined the Coinbase board of directors in December last year.
While little is know about Facebook's interest in blockchain technology, one clue may come from Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg who earlier this year flagged up the cryptocurrency boom as one of his top challenges for the year ahead.