Meta is allowing some WhatsApp users to send and receive money with its nascent Novi crypto wallet

• Some WhatsApp users in the US are being allowed to use the Novi digital wallet to send and receive money.
• The move expands a pilot program of Novi, which lets users send money internationally without fees.

Some users of the Whatsapp messaging app in the US are now able to send and receive money using the Novi wallet, an expansion of a pilot program for the cryptocurrency payments service developed by Meta, the tech behemoth formerly known as Facebook.

A "limited number" of people on WhatsApp have access to moving money digitally with Novi, said Stephane Kasriel, Novi's CEO, in a posting on Twitter late Wednesday. WhatsApp is a unit of Meta. Kasriel touted sending money to family and friends with Novi "as easy as sending a message." A notice about the expanded US testing was also put on Novi's website.

A standalone app like WhatsApp, Novi is designed to transfer money internationally and instantly with no fees to send or receive money. Payments are made through Pax Dollars, or USDP, a stablecoin created in 2018 whose value is pegged to the US dollar and whose reserves are fully backed by cash and cash equivalents.

In October, then-Facebook launched a "small" pilot program for Novi in Guatemala and in some parts of the US and said the service could help reach a portion of the 1.7 billion adults worldwide who don't have access to a bank account. Novi is also working with crypto exchange Coinbase to provide custody services to ensure the safe storage of its customers' funds.

A group of Democratic senators in October called on Facebook's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to stop the launch of Novi, saying the company couldn't be trusted to ​​manage a payment system or digital currency.