Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg (마크 저커버그), is pushing a plan to enter the stablecoin market within this year, CoinDesk reported on Feb. 24, citing three sources familiar with the matter.

Meta is reviewing ways to cooperate with external companies on a payments service that uses dollar-linked token technology.

One source said Meta will begin stablecoin integration in early in the second half of this year.

Meta plans to process stablecoin-based payments through outside companies. Another person said Meta sent requests for proposals to external firms and that payments platform Stripe is seen as a likely pilot partner.

Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure specialist, last year and has maintained a long-standing cooperative relationship with Meta.

If Meta adopts stablecoins, it can directly operate payment infrastructure for more than 3 billion users and bypass fees charged by existing financial institutions. It appears to expect it could jump to a global "social commerce" platform by combining WhatsApp peer-to-peer transfers and commerce functions on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta announced its own stablecoin, Libra, in 2019, but wound down the business and sold its assets in early 2022 after facing opposition in the U.S. Congress and regulatory barriers. One source said, "This time, Meta does not want to step forward directly and wants to proceed through a third party while keeping some distance."