Meta Is Shutting Down Its Novi Crypto Wallet

Meta has announced that its Novi wallet is being shut down less than a year after its debut.

The company launched Novi in the US and Guatemala in October 2021; in December 2021 it was used as the foundation for cryptocurrency-enabled money transfers between WhatsApp users. But now Meta says “the Novi pilot” will be coming to an end this September.

“Novi will no longer be available for use after September 1,” Meta says on the homepage of the digital wallet’s dedicated website. “Before Novi goes away, we’ve made it easy for you to get your remaining balance and download your Novi information.”

Novi users will be able to add money to their accounts until July 21—but it’s probably not the preferred course of action. “Please withdraw your balance as soon as possible,” Meta says(Opens in a new window) in a support article, which also explains how Novi users are supposed to retrieve their funds:

“If you have money remaining in your Novi account after the pilot ends on September 1, 2022,” Meta says, “we’ll attempt to transfer your balance to the bank account or debit card you’ve added to Novi.” It’s not clear what the company plans to do with any unclaimed funds.

Meta also says that Novi users can request a copy of the data the service has collected about them until Sept. 1 and warns that “you will no longer be able to request a copy of your information” afterwards. Instructions for requesting this data are available via a support article(Opens in a new window).

Novi will be shut down roughly seven months after work on Diem, the Facebook-backed cryptocurrency formerly known as Libra, wound down because federal regulators weren’t interested in moving forward with the Diem Association’s idea of the model digital currency.