Facebook announces end to short-lived crypto system

Novi, the short-lived cryptocurrency system launched by Facebook to support its abandoned stablecoin project, will shutter near the end of the summer, Meta revealed this week.

“Novi will no longer be available for use after September 1,” a message on Novi’s website said this week, urging visitors to “withdraw any remaining balance in your Novi account before that date.”

“Novi” was launched in part to accommodate Facebook’s grandly ambitioned Diem cryptocurrency, though it was ultimately abandoned as unworkable in early 2022. 

The shuttering of Novi comes alongside broader chaos in the crypto market, with even reliable currencies such as bitcoin suffering severe drops in value and wild fluctuations amid larger market turmoil.