Facebook has reportedly met with Visa, Mastercard and a number of bulge-bracket financial institutions in the hope of securing a $1 billion investment for its secretive cryptocurrency project,
Facebook set up its blockchain unit last year, giving it the freedom to operate as a startup under the leadership of former PayPal president and Coinbase board member David Marcus.
One of the ideas coming out of this group is the creation of a stablecoin that would be pegged to major international currencies and used to send payments across the social media giant's messaging apps.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is planning to launch a full payments network and in discussions with Visa and Mastercard, payments processors such as giant First Data as well as large e-commerce merchants to support the launch. It has also held talks with major banks over raising $1 billion to bolster the coin against major currency fluctuations.
The plans are so advanced that Facebook has reportedly already held talks with leading cryptocurrency exchanges about selling the new digital token, freeing the company from the need to hold the coins and vet users.