Mark Zuckerberg is coming for your wallet

I recently wrote about how Mark Zuckerberg was building a new surveillance state — one powered by AI, emotion-reading smartglasses, and frictionless data capture. But while the cameras watch your eyes, something even more dangerous is quietly tightening its grip around your wallet.

Zuckerberg is moving back into crypto. And this time, Zuck might actually pull it off.

Once Meta controls the rails, it doesn’t need to censor. It just needs to interrupt the flow. No bans. No headlines. Just stealthy throttling.

Meta reportedly wants to bring stablecoins into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. In simple terms, stablecoins are digital currencies linked to something steady (like the U.S. dollar). Unlike Bitcoin, they don’t fluctuate wildly in value. As the name suggests, stablecoins are designed to remain stable. This might seem dull, even boring, but that’s the point. Stablecoins don’t sound revolutionary. They sound responsible. Professional. But when Meta adopts them, they stop being boring. They become a silent engine for dominance — a digital financial infrastructure controlled by one man, backed by 3 billion users.

And it’s not his first attempt.

Zuckerberg’s previous crypto project, Libra (later renamed Diem), was slapped down by global regulators. The concern? That one company could create a private global financial system, bypassing central banks, dodging oversight, and pressuring national currencies. The backlash was swift. Congress intervened. The EU objected. Even the Bank of England said no.

But Zuckerberg doesn’t give up. He pivots. This time, he’s not launching his own coin. He’s slipping through the back door by partnering with existing stablecoin providers. No new coin. No major announcement. Just seamless integrations, one contract at a time.

The goal isn’t cryptocurrency innovation or financial empowerment. It’s control. Meta doesn’t just want to host transactions. It wants to be the rails, the protocol, the silent layer under every payment, tip, and subscription. If he pulls this off, Meta won’t just know what you watch; it will know what you buy, what you send, who you support, and what causes you can’t fund. That’s right, can’t. This is where it gets dangerous.

Once Meta controls the rails, it doesn’t need to censor. It just needs to interrupt the flow. No bans. No headlines. Just stealthy throttling. A creator doesn’t get paid. A fundraiser gets flagged. A dissident sees his transactions “delayed for review.”

RELATED: Trump’s Bitcoin masterstroke puts America ahead in digital assets

Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

If this sounds far-fetched, please remember that this is already happening. Just look at PayPal, GoFundMe, and Patreon — all have denied payouts over politics. Now imagine that same enforcement mechanism baked into the world’s largest social network. This won’t happen overnight. It’ll look like a feature. It starts with convenience. Send money to friends, tip a podcast host, buy merch in one click, etc. Then it expands: in-app loans, subscriptions, and gig worker payouts. Then it tightens: flagged transactions, ranked trust scores, and real-time financial nudging. Before long, you’re not just using Meta — you’re living inside it. A walled garden with its own currency, rules, and enforcement.

And the really humorous part is that it will be sold as freedom. You’ll hear about “empowering creators.” “Serving the underbanked.” “Financial inclusion.” These are the same buzzwords that Big Tech always uses when it’s selling control in disguise. But let me be clear: When one unelected billionaire sets the rules for global money flow, that’s not inclusion. That’s risk. That’s regulatory arbitrage masquerading as progress.

Imagine the 2028 U.S. election. A political candidate is frozen out of ad payments because Meta deems him “high-risk.” A protest group can’t receive donations. A journalist’s subscription platform loses its payout privileges. Again, this isn’t far-fetched; this isn’t hypothetical. Meta already scans private messages for flagged links. It already limits what content is shown based on opaque “community guidelines.” Crypto integration just tightens the noose. Very soon, it won’t be just speech on the line. It will be livelihoods. The digital public square is merging with the digital bank. And Zuckerberg will be both mayor and treasurer.

Stablecoins weren’t supposed to look like this. They were meant to reduce fees, streamline cross-border payments, and offer an alternative to bloated legacy finance. But in the wrong hands, they become something else. Not just a faster dollar, but a programmable one. One that can be paused, tracked, and controlled.

And here’s the final scenario no one wants to admit: Once Meta has stablecoin rails in place, what’s stopping it from launching its own currency again? Except this time, it won’t be called Libra. It won’t be regulated like a bank. It will already be everywhere. A default setting. An opt-out that you didn’t even know was enabled. That’s the real endgame. Zuckerberg failed the first time because he moved too fast and too loudly. This time, he’s moving quietly. And that should scare the hell out of you.

Because if he succeeds, it won’t just be a coin. It’ll be the operating system of your financial life. And once Meta’s inside your wallet, there’s no logging out.