“We’re definitely looking at the number of ways to get
involved in the space because we think we’re in a really good position to do
so,” Facebook executive David Marcus said Tuesday in an interview on Bloomberg
Television.
Marcus leads F2, or Facebook Financial, the internal group
developing the company’s Novi digital wallet. That wallet could be used to hold
NFTs, he said. “When you have a good crypto wallet like Novi will be, you also
have to think about how to help consumers support NFTs,” he added. “We’re
definitely thinking about this.” He wasn’t more specific about what kinds of
NFT-related products Facebook might build.
Facebook’s digital wallet is “ready now,” Marcus said, but
the company has been waiting to launch it until it can do so alongside Diem,
the digital currency previously known as Libra, which Marcus co-founded from
within Facebook in 2019.
Plans are for Diem to offer a so-called stablecoin backed by
the U.S. dollar, but it’s unclear when the coin will be introduced. The project
faced immense pushback from lawmakers and regulators when it was unveiled, and
while Facebook is still a partner on the project, Diem is now run
independently.
Marcus said Facebook would consider launching the Novi
wallet without Diem “as a last resort,” but he believes both are necessary to
change the way people make payments. The social media giant’s hope is that
people will use Facebook’s wallet to transfer Diem, which could reduce costly
fees and lower the time it takes to send money cross-border.
Without more innovation in payments technology, Marcus said,
countries in the West like the U.S. will struggle to keep up with China in
adapting to a world where digital payments are dominant.
“We’re really falling behind at an alarming rate,” he said.