'Facebook Coin' Might Bring $19 Billion in Revenue, Barclays Predicts
- The firm is reportedly set to launch its digital currency as soon as the first half of this year.

Facebook’s upcoming cryptocurrency will generate billions in revenue for the firm, predicts a Barclays analyst.
As reported by CNBC, Barclays analyst Ross Sandler, on Monday sent a note to the firm’s clients stating that Facebook’s decision to introduce digital currency across its various platforms - Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram - could generate anywhere between $3 billion to $19 billion in additional revenue by 2021.
A Big Push After the Bad Press
The Menlo Park-headquartered firm was riddled with controversies in the past year, including the data breach by London-based Cambridge Analytica and the alleged use of the ad campaigns for meddling with elections in the United States. This impacted the share price of the company for a while, which bounced back again to add 30 percent yearly gain.
“Merely establishing this revenue stream starts to change the story for Facebook shares in our view,” Sandler noted.
Though not announced officially, multiple media sources revealed that the social media giant is working on the development of its own digital currency called “Facebook Coin.” Moreover, to avoid the wild price swings, Facebook will reportedly peg its crypto against US dollar, creating a so-called "stablecoin."
In 2017, the California-based company brought in $40.6 billion in total revenue, out of which $39.9 billion was generated from advertisements on the platform.
“Any attempt to build out revenue streams outside of advertising, especially those that don't abuse user privacy are likely to be well-received by Facebook's shareholders,” Barclays’ note stated.
A Similar Attempt in the Past
Facebook Coin is not the first native currency of the platform. Earlier in 2010, Facebook introduced a virtual currency for the platform called “Facebook Credits,” which could be bought in exchange for fiats - similar to virtual currencies used in various games and apps.
Sandler pointed out that the previous initiative failed as the social media platform had to bear the currency interchange cost, “which negatively impacts the profitability of the business, especially when making high volumes of lower-value transactions.”
After eight years, however, the market and the technology have matured significantly and the company’s plan to introduce a digital currency could “re-invigorate that business strategy.”
Meanwhile, to bolster its Blockchain Blockchain Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Read this Term initiative, Facebook, last month, acqui-hired the entire team of the blockchain startup Chainspace.
Facebook’s upcoming cryptocurrency will generate billions in revenue for the firm, predicts a Barclays analyst.
As reported by CNBC, Barclays analyst Ross Sandler, on Monday sent a note to the firm’s clients stating that Facebook’s decision to introduce digital currency across its various platforms - Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram - could generate anywhere between $3 billion to $19 billion in additional revenue by 2021.
A Big Push After the Bad Press
The Menlo Park-headquartered firm was riddled with controversies in the past year, including the data breach by London-based Cambridge Analytica and the alleged use of the ad campaigns for meddling with elections in the United States. This impacted the share price of the company for a while, which bounced back again to add 30 percent yearly gain.
“Merely establishing this revenue stream starts to change the story for Facebook shares in our view,” Sandler noted.
Though not announced officially, multiple media sources revealed that the social media giant is working on the development of its own digital currency called “Facebook Coin.” Moreover, to avoid the wild price swings, Facebook will reportedly peg its crypto against US dollar, creating a so-called "stablecoin."
In 2017, the California-based company brought in $40.6 billion in total revenue, out of which $39.9 billion was generated from advertisements on the platform.
“Any attempt to build out revenue streams outside of advertising, especially those that don't abuse user privacy are likely to be well-received by Facebook's shareholders,” Barclays’ note stated.
A Similar Attempt in the Past
Facebook Coin is not the first native currency of the platform. Earlier in 2010, Facebook introduced a virtual currency for the platform called “Facebook Credits,” which could be bought in exchange for fiats - similar to virtual currencies used in various games and apps.
Sandler pointed out that the previous initiative failed as the social media platform had to bear the currency interchange cost, “which negatively impacts the profitability of the business, especially when making high volumes of lower-value transactions.”
After eight years, however, the market and the technology have matured significantly and the company’s plan to introduce a digital currency could “re-invigorate that business strategy.”
Meanwhile, to bolster its Blockchain Blockchain Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Read this Term initiative, Facebook, last month, acqui-hired the entire team of the blockchain startup Chainspace.