Share this article

Facebook: Novi Digital Wallet Is ‘Ready to Come to Market’

Most states in the U.S. have approved the product.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 1:41 p.m. Published Aug 18, 2021, 2:11 p.m.
David Marcus, the head of Facebook's blockchain projects.
David Marcus, the head of Facebook's blockchain projects.

Facebook said Wednesday that the global payments system is seriously flawed and that the social media giant can fix it.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the The Protocol Newsletter today. See all newsletters

  • “Change is long overdue,” Facebook’s David Marcus wrote in a blog post.
  • Marcus, the former PayPal chief hired in 2018 to lead Facebook’s blockchain efforts, said Novi, the digital wallet subsidiary he oversees, is “ready to come to market.”
  • “We feel that it’s unreasonable to delay delivering the benefits of cheaper, interoperable, more accessible digital payments,” he wrote.
  • The blog post follows reports of the increased obstacles that Facebook's stablecoin project faces. After being introduced in June 2019, Libra ran into resistance from global regulators. The project, which was rebranded as Diem in December, has yet to launch.
  • Only offering fiat currency within Novi would still provide value, Marcus wrote, though he added: “I strongly believe if there was ever a chance to create an open, interoperable protocol for money on the internet and truly change the game for people and businesses around the world, it is now.”
  • Marcus noted that Facebook has secured licenses and approvals for Novi in nearly every state in the U.S., and said, “We will not launch anywhere we have not yet received such clearances.”

Read more: Senator Warren Urges ‘Coordinated and Holistic’ Response to ‘Dangers’ of Crypto

More For You

Protocol Research: GoPlus Security

GP Basic Image

What to know:

  • As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
  • GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
  • Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.

More For You

Solana’s Drift Launches v3, With 10x Faster Trades

Drift (b52_Tresa/Pixabay)

With v3, the team says that about 85% of market orders will fill in under half a second, and liquidity will deepen enough to bring slippage on larger trades down to around 0.02%.

What to know:

  • Drift, one of the largest perpetuals trading platforms on Solana, has launched Drift v3, a major upgrade meant to make on-chain trading feel as fast and smooth as using a centralized exchange.
  • The new version will deliver 10-times faster trade execution thanks to a rebuilt backend, marking the largest performance jump the project has made so far.