Facebook Is Rumoured To Be Seeking $1 Billion In Funding For A Crypto Project

Mark Zuckerberg’s social media platform, Facebook is rumoured to be seeking to raise an astounding $1 billion dollars in external funding for its secretive, upcoming crypto project.

A technology reporter for The New York Times by the name of Nathaniel Popper, sent out a tweet on Monday, stating that sources have claimed Facebook is targeting “big sums – as much as $1b” from venture capitalists to support a stablecoin project. The company plans to use the raised funds as the collateral to back the token, according to a source that Popper spoke to.

However, it must be noted at this time, that these comments have not been confirmed by any potential investors or Facebook.

As revealed back in December, Facebook has been hard at work developing its own stablecoin for money transfers via Whatsapp and the token, could be pegged to a “basket of foreign currencies held in bank accounts,” as per Popper’s tweet.

Furthermore, Facebook has also announced plans to list its stablecoin on various crypto exchanges, telling platforms that it expects to launch its token within the first half of this year.

Yes, it might be true, that Facebook is far from strapped for cash, the involvement of outside investors could strengthen Facebook’s offering of the crypto project as  “more decentralized and less controlled” by itself, as suggested by Popper’s sources. The company reportedly had  $44 billion in cash and equivalents as of April 2018, according to CNBC.

Earlier this year, Ross Sandler, an analyst at Barclays estimated that Facebook’s crypto project could yield anywhere from $3 billion to $19 billion in additional revenue as early as 2021.

The social media giant launched its blockchain team back in May 2018, in an effort to begin exploring the innovative technology. Since then, the company has actively been working on expanding the team by filling new roles. Recently, it advertised that it had 20 open positions in blockchain related roles, including a lead commercial counsel position.

Lastly, Facebook also employed new team members from Chainspace earlier this year, the startup which developed a smart contracts platform.