As Facebook nears its announcement for its cryptocurrency, the company getting some big-name backers. Mastercard, Visa, and PayPal are now backing Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The coin will also have support from e-commerce companies, venture capitalists, and telecommunications firms, according to the WSJ. Each investor will provide $10 million to the stable coin as Facebook looks to raise $1 billion.
Libra is set to work across all of Facebook’s properties including Instagram and WhatsApp. Rumors originally started circulating in December about Facebook creating a cryptocurrency for WhatsApp. The cryptocurrency was supposed to focus on WhatsApp’s India market, which boasts more than 200 million users, and would allow users to transfer money.
Libra will help Facebook’s global users provide payments to each other without the hassle of international fees associated with credit cards.
However, Facebook isn’t the first big name company to create its own crypto. In February, JPMorgan began testing out its own cryptocurrency JPM Coin, which is based in U.S. dollars. The bank said it plans to expand to other currencies once the prototype has been thoroughly tested, but unlike Facebook’s coin, it will specifically be for business-to-business transactions.
Facebook is set to announce official details about the coin on June 18.
